5. Conclusions
In today’s knowledge economy, information technology
is a driving force in organizational change. ERP
systems along with other technological advances such as
E-commerce are playing a major role in assisting a
company’s strategic plan. The global competition, along
with shorter product lifecycles, ever-increasing market
niches, and the pressure to react quickly to the changing
external business environment has forced companies to
make decisions in an integrated manner.
One of the greatest benefits of ERP system such as SAP
R/3 is the integration of processes, data and organizational
elements, i.e. it unites all of a company’s major business
processes (from order processing to product distribution)
within a single family of software modules. This tight
integration makes simultaneously satisfying operational,
financial, and managerial principles possible. ERP systems
have potential to make a company stronger and successful
but it also has the potentials to kill a company. Thus, in
order to obtain benefits and avoid serious difficulties,
companies need to solve the ERP implementation problems.
In this paper, we have provided a broad overview of ERP
system and then, focused primarily on its implications for
operations function. However, this work should be extended
to delineate its implications for other internal supply chain
members (i.e. functional areas) as well as external supply
chain members (Tam et al., 2002).
As shown in the paper, ERP systems have been used to
improve internal operations and efficiencies. Today’s
dynamic business environment requires companies to
internally monitor and make decisions in response to
changes in the marketplace. To effectively compete in the
international business world, companies must position
themselves to quickly access both internal and external
market information and make prudent business decisions.
For example, Coca-Cola has extended its ERP system to its
bottlers and has further plans to extend its system not only
backward to suppliers but forward to major customers such
as McDonalds and Wal-Mart. With this forward extension,
Coca-Cola and its partners will be able to gather data from
its customers on various trends in the industry, e.g. changes
in tastes and preferences, sales data for improved forecasting
and inventory management and to better serve their
customers (Oliver, 1999).