Information systems of ford motor company

nurture establishments of ford motor confederationSince Information outline is a concept for militant utility which defined in the beforehand(predicate) 80s, there ar lots of companies invested at cultivation applied science. Until now, there is a survey shows that nurture engineering investment is being more and more in ein truth come with. It is showing that, Information system is a stern for conducting stemma today. In many another(prenominal) feares, survival and the ability to carry through strategical business goals is difficult without extensive use of entropy technology. It is because information technology rotter help a political party more easy to profit agonistical by achieving operational excellence, catching new products and overhauls, enhanced client and supplier intimacy and exploiting digital markets. So nowadays, information system is very(prenominal) important for every come with.This essay will discuss how useful of information system in business, by instruction fording aim fraternity as an example which using information system to enhanced guest and supplier intimacy in customer relationship management system (CRM). intersection go companionships system and environmentThe hybridizing motor company was formed in 1903 by Henry hybridizing whose aim was to add the people with a cheap and affordable car that any midway class employed person could own. crossbreeding locomote Company is a famous company which selling self-propelling. It is in like manner a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Michigan. It manufactures or distri just nowes automobiles across 6 continents.In 1995, fording had embarked on an ambitious restructuring plan called get over 2000, which include merging its North Ameri derriere, European, and international automotive operations into a private global. hybridisation 2000 helps company cut out the embody by reengineering and globalizing corporate organization s and subroutinees. The study reengineering projects were initiated around study company processes much(prenominal) as severalise to deliverance (OTD) and hybridisation Production System (FPS), with goals such as reducing OTD quantify from more than 60 days to less than 15 days. hybridisation in any case launched a public Internet site in mid- 1995 by mid- 1997 the bend of visits to the site had r from each unitaryed more than 1 million per day. A companywide Intranet was launched in mid- 1996. And by January 1997 hybridization had in place a business-to-business capability through which the Intranet could be extended in a secure manner beyond company boundaries into an Extranet potentially connecting traverse with its suppliers. crossing aggrouped with Chrysler and General Motors to work on the self-propelled Network Ex variegate, which substructure help suppliers to manage incompatible message of interaction with each auto bringr to be consistency in technology standards and processes in the supplier network.In the grant chain area, there was general accord that information technology also could be deployed to dramatically enhance textile flows and reduce inventories, substituting information for inventory, as the expression went. So in the plan of intersection 2000, for fancying the aim on reengineering projects, having a tight-laced allow chain management systems and customer relationship management systems can help the company more close to suppliers and customers which can easy to reduce the cost on fix to delivery system and ford proceeds system. As that time Internet revolution unfolded in parallel, Ford Motor Company cookd new possibilities for reengineering processes within and between enterprises by using Internet. Fords existent tack BaseThe existing supply base was in many respects a product of history. Start in early 1990s, Ford had begun to try actively to decrease the number of suppliers the company dealt with dire ctly. Rather than using a large amount to buy individual components, it shifts to brook semipermanent relationships with a subset of very capable suppliers who would issue entire vehicle subsystems. By doing that, Ford can easier to have a headspring link with major suppliers which can help Ford easier to improving a range of techniques such as estimable-in-time and total quality management. Ford Motor Companys SCM and CRM technology of Information system Ford Production SystemIn restructuring plan, Ford 2000, the nigh important is reengineering projects one of these projects is Ford Production System, it is an information system to make a close relationship to suppliers. Its aim is that make better the process on making motor to be more pull-based system, with synchronized production, continuous flow, and stableness throughout the process. To get through that, Ford could tell suppliers exactly when and where certain components would be needed days in advance, and buffer st ocks thus could be trim down dramatically. If this system can work successfully, the benefits would be felt throughout the supply chain. Order to DeliveryFor another key process Ford reengineering projects is sounding for improve the customer relationship management system. The information system to do that is Order to Delivery, the purpose of this system was to reduce to 15days the time from a customers order to delivery of the finished product. The Order to Delivery vision was to create a lean, flexible, and predictable process that harmonized the efforts of all of Fords components to enable it to provide consumers with full product in right place at right time, which means that it can help Ford Motor Company meet the clean-in-time technique. By achieving Order to Delivery, Ford believed that it would provide better quality, higher customer satisfaction, alter customer selection, better plant productivity, stability for its supply base, and lower monger and company costs. Fo rd Retail NetworkOn 1 July, 1998, Ford Motor Company launched the first of its Ford Retail Network ventures in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under the newly formed Ford Investment Enterprises Company. The principle of Ford Retail Network was that giving consumers the highest level of treatment and create an follow through they would want to come back to again and again. The showrooms would be consolidated to cerebrate visions on creating a superior selling experience, while the number of service outlets would increase to be closer to customer population centers. Then Ford can reduce the cost on advertising as well as more and more on using Internet to provide the service to the customers as the information system can depth psychology the ineluctably for customers effectively. Using SAP softwareUntil now, Ford not only just follows the web-site to provide the service to customers, for achieving total supply chain visibility in real time, increasing dealer and customer service satisfaction and minimizing costs, especially ongoing IT costs, Ford also using SAP software, to improve the surgical operation on supply chain management and customer relationship management. business organization fashion models for Ford Motor Company Three generic strategies Cost leadersUnder Porter (1985), he regarded the selection of a defendable mail service within an industry as the end result of a competitive strategic analysis. He argued that successful, profitable companies generally choose to compete on either low costs or by differentiating their products to meet special(prenominal) customer needs. Although these two strategic options are mutually exclusive, he added a third category of firms as niche players that serve a limited market or product segment. Porters three generic strategies are cost leaders, differentiation and focus.Henry Ford was a farmers son whose manufacturing genius alter life around the globe (Ford Motor Company, 2010). So that Ford Motor Company is followin g the business models which Henry Ford want to be. It is the cost leadership.In the automobile industry, Ford Motor Company can meet its business model, cost leadership. As Porter (1985) stated that cost leadership is about being the lowest cost producer in the industry. For an organization to gain competitive advantage, it must achieve overall cost leadership in an industry it is competing in. To lowest the cost, there are many techniques and methodology for organizations to use. Among the popular and successful techniques used by successful organizations worldwide in enhancing quality, productivity, lowering cost are six methodology, Total Quality wariness (TQM), Benchmarking Competitors, Just-in-Time (JIT), Supply cosmic string Management (SCM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and MRP solutions.When Ford Motor Company developed the information system, it is easier to achieve this business model. It is because Ford using information system to improve the relationship to cust omers and suppliers. Ford develop the Ford Production System can help it to improve Supply Chain Management system to be a competitive advantage. And also, the Order to Delivery system can reduce the time, which means Ford can easier to achieve the just-in-time techniques. non only these two reasons, but also the major reason of Ford can achieve this business model, cost leadership, is that Ford through developing information system to get a exponent on using a cheaper price to buy the material from suppliers. By that, Ford can reduce the cost effectively, thats why Ford Motor Company can achieve cost leadership.Ford developed the information system is focus on enhanced customer and supplier intimacy, it is looking for what customers want to, not for what company what to develop. So that means, Ford is not just focus on narrow target. It is because different customers need different fibre of cars. Value ChainPorter (1985) stated that lever chain model is a systematic way of anal yzing all the firms activities and evaluating how they interact with each other. much(prenominal) an examination is necessary in order to identify potential sources of competitive advantage. For Porter, the value chain can be consisted for five primary activities (including inward logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service) and four support activities (including firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement).The value chain of the Ford Motor Company is not all that different from other manufacturers in the automobile industry. However, when Ford Motor Company developed information system, it helped Ford to improve its value chain. In one of support activities, Procurement, Ford through its information system, Ford Production System, to improve the relationship of suppliers, it is not only helping Ford to reduce the cost for buying material, but also operative intimately with its suppliers to eliminate waste and thereby lower costs for both organizations. This should be a win-win situation for both companies and should help lift Ford from its near-last rank in supplier relations.The next activity for information system to improve is technology development. Ford through the information system, Ford Retail Network, to go out the value of consumer input and what consumer needed, which can help Ford easier to design a successful modern design technologies. They have initiated tailoring design models subsequently public demand. This method has proven highly successful in new-made financial periods.Marketing is also a very important case of the Ford. By using Ford Retail Network system, Ford has been working together with dealers or buys all dealers to collect more information to create marketing strategies that help boost sales. This is proven to be the primary pedestal for the consumers perceived values.Ford has also teamed-up with Caterpillar Logistics and SAP to improve computer st orage and its Daily Parts Advantage network for getting spare split to their dealers. Their hope in partnering with Cat Logistics was to secure a partner with expertness in the automotive supply chain, laying a foundation for development of a new information system. The goal was to obtain end-to-end visibility of service parts, increase the speed of time to market, optimize inventories at each location, and do a better job serving the customer (Supply Chain Brain).Along with Cat Logistics and SAP, Ford is also using an SAS platform that supports customer relationship management (CRM). This SAS platform enhances Fords existing customer relationship database and provides a powerful base for information analysis, data mining and predictive poser thus enabling highly effective reporting, trending, segmentation, customer scoring, and customer life-cycle analysis all of which support key activities for CRM.As information system can improve lots of activities in value chain, it can help the company to gain the competitive advantage.Problems and challenges in the development of the Information SystemWhen Ford Motor Company developed the information system, it needs to face lots of challenges. Here are somewhat of them. Costly and timelyAs Ford is a large company, it is very costly on developing information system. There are complex pieces of software which Ford developed to achieve its competitive advantage. To develop these large system, Ford need to spend its recourses. Not only the cost on buying software and hardware of the system, but also other cost such as consulting fees, personnel costs, training. Also, intimately of them need to spend time to develop. For Ford Motor Company, it has large team on Information Technology, which needs to hire lots of employees to work. There are costly on the salaries and also it needs spend over one mouth to train the employees to understand the system and use the system.As Ford adopts an enterprise application from SAP, it is very costly to switch SAP and it wrick dependent on SAP to upgrade its product and maintain its installation. challenging to collect informationSome of the information systems which developed by Ford focus on supply chain management. These systems require multiple organizations to character information and business processes. It is difficult for each participant to change of its process and the way it uses information to create a system that best serves the supply chain as whole. Also, there are different policies in different company Ford cannot collect the information fully for its suppliers as some of the information may be the secrecy. Hard to handle the technologyAs the technology of information system such as internet is yield quickly, it is not easy for Ford Motor Company to understand understandably about the technology, it will be a risk on losing property when develop that technology. So when developing the information system, Ford needs to make sure it understand s what is its usage clearly.ConclusionIn short, Ford uses information technology on business manager, SCM and CRM, for enhanced customer and supplier successfully. It can come over that information system can help Ford achieve its business model.Nowadays, every company will develop the information system to achieve competitive, most of them have the e-business, too. It is surly that information system is a very useful and major tool to help company to meet their aims. However, it does not mean have information system can help the company to do a successful business, because the most important is that company have a correct business strategy. As the example on Ford, its business model is cost leadership it is a great competitive advantage at early 1900s when Ford provided Model T cars. However, following the change of environment, it is not work now. So, if a company want to achieve competitive, it is not only focusing on develop information system, but also focusing on the business strategy.