ISSN: 2277-4629 (Online) | ISSN: 2250-1827 (Print)

CPMR-IJT Vol. 2, No.1, June 2012

Strategic Approach for Successful Implementation of Management Information System for Manufacturing Industry
Murali Krishna Kuppili* Dr. A R Aryasri**

ABSTRACT
Purpose- To focus on challenges & strategic approach in implementing Management Information System (MIS) for process equipment (For Ex: Pressure Vessels, Boilers, Heat Exchangers, Agitators, Dryers, Storage Containers) manufacturing industry. Approach- Case study Findings- There was about 20% of productivity improvement after successful implementation of MIS for various divisions in the organization. Practical implications- One can understand better in the context of process equipment manufacturing industry, the concepts of management information system, its impact on productivity & financials. The strategic approach indicated here will help organizations, before introducing MIS, to take appropriate actions in efficient implementation. Originality/value- Given the absence of published academic literature and empirical findings relating to implementation of MIS in process equipment manufacturing industry, this study may serve as a point of reference for future studies in this area of concern.

Keywords: MIS, Equipment, Manufacturing, Implementation, Issues

I. INTRODUCTION
The Management Information System (MIS) exists in the various organizations for more than 20 years. The concept of the MIS has evolved over a period of time covering many different aspects of the organizational functions. The MIS is defined as An integrated system of man and machine for providing the information to support the operations, the management and the decision making function in the organization. The initial concept of MIS was to process data from the organization and presents it in the reports at regular intervals. This concept was further modified when a distinction was made between data and information. The information is a product of an analysis of data. This concept is similar to a raw material and the finished product. Over period of time, when these conceptual developments taking place, the concept of the end user computing using multiple databases & user interfaces emerged. This concept brought a fundamental change in MIS which made user is independent of system. When this becomes a reality, the concept of MIS changed to a decision making system.

*Director SoCtronics Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India **Director School of Management Studies, JNTU Hyderabad, India

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The MIS is a product of a multi-disciplinary approach to the business management. It is a product which needs to be kept under a constant review and modification to meet the corporate needs of the information. To have better handle on information processing, it is necessary to have a formal system which should take care of following aspects: Managing large volumes of data Confirmation of the validity of data and transaction. Complex processing of data and multidimensional analysis. Quick search and retrieval. Efficient storage and security of the data. Availability of the information system to the user on time. Fulfilling the changing needs of the information. Provision to expand over a period of time in-line with the business growth. The MIS satisfies the diverse needs through a variety of systems such as Query Systems, Analysis Systems, Modelling Systems and Decision Support Systems. The MIS helps in Strategic Planning, Management Control, Operational Control and Transaction Processing. The MIS helps the clerical personnel in the transaction processing and answers their queries on the data pertaining to the transaction, the status of a particular record and references on a variety of documents. The MIS helps the junior management personnel by providing the operational data for planning, scheduling and control, and helps them further in decision making at the operations level to correct an out of control situation. The MIS helps the middle management in short-term planning, target setting and controlling the business functions. It is supported by the use of the management tools of planning and control. The MIS helps the top management in goal setting, strategic planning and evolving the business plans and their implementation. The MIS plays the role of information generation, communication, problem identification and helps in the process of decision making. The MIS, therefore, plays
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a vital role in the management, administration and operations of an organization.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

The paper on ERP indicates seven categories of critical success factors from the ERP literature [1]. The importance of these factors across the phases of ERP implementation and upgrade is very similar. Business Plan and Vision and Top Management Support and Championship are critical during the Chartering phase. ERP Team Composition, Skills and Compensation, Project Management and System Analysis, Selection and Technical Implementation are most important during the Project phase. Change Management and Communication are very important during the Project and Shakedown phases. In one of the research papers it is indicated that Management Information system is a system which is very useful and helpful to get information about any organization or different departments of an organization and different kinds of fields [2]. In this paper it was described what is MIS, components and types of MIS, what is the use of MIS etc. The design of a computer based MIS to aid in the search for information is a specialized task, requiring extensive knowledge of how information can be organized and how people search for information. There are some most important things to consider while implementing MIS such as computerized infrastructure, technical trained staff, accurate data collection and a database management etc. In another research paper it is indicated that the transaction processing layer of MIS in human resource function deals with routine activities like attendance recording and payroll calculations. The operational level activities also include maintaining the employee records which is used as a basis for strategic layers [3]. With the growing importance of human resource management and increasing size of the organizations, maintenance of employee related data and generating appropriate reports are the crucial aspects of any organization. Therefore more and more organizations are adopting computer based human resource management systems
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(HRMS). This paper is an attempt to design and implement an MIS for the business organization and show how it helps in taking management decisions related to management function especially for the top management. The paper on healthcare indicated that major challenges remain in Latin American countries experiencing Healthcare reform [4]. Among these challenges, the implementation of decentralized organization, implementing information systems and strengthening the management capacity of district health providers & district health authorities remains neglected, or at least undervalued. The objective of this paper is to illustrate a substantive process theory of IS implementation, situated within the context of a case study. The case study is based on a national information systems initiative to support the decentralization and modernization of management functions in health districts of the Ministry of Public Health in Ecuador. From the study of various research papers it is understood that MIS plays very important role in modern organizations in various domains. It is necessary to follow a systematic approach for successful implementation of MIS. This paper mainly focuses on a case study from process equipment manufacturing industry to present issues faced just after implementation of MIS and suggestive solutions to overcome these challenges.

Upgrade Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah; Santiago Delgado. [2] Importance of Management Information System in Electronic- Information Era C.L.P.Gupta1*, Shalini Sharma2 and Sudhakar Tripathi3 [3] Role of Management Information System (MIS) in Human Resource - K P Tripathi [4] Challenges to information systems implementation and organizational change management: insights from the health sector in Ecuador Angel Javier Salazar Alvarez. This company was established almost 25 years back in India with a very small setup and grew one of the prominent process equipment supplier over a period of time. Promu was started explored to implement computerization in the late eighties or early nineties mainly for design of process equipment. Their design teams have started looking for some commercial applications and also explored to development of computer applications using C, FORTRAN & AutoCAD. The executive team has realized quicker design solutions & most optimized designs to save the efforts & cost of overall project. Above momentum was picked up and company has started thinking about more & more automation not only for their equipment design but also into material requirement planning, production planning, resource allocation, sales tracking, financial management & human resource management etc. The company has replaced most of their official communication with paper work by emails and manual design with computerized designs in mid-nineties to late nineties. The executive team has also started monitoring their business and financial reports in computerized formats in mid-nineties. However, the above journey of implementing computerization or management information system was not so easy. The company has faced lot of challenges in replacing the existing manual systems with computerized systems viz. convincing employees, training on new systems, seamless coordination with external teams (such as vendors, customers, investors & government),
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III. OVERVIEW OF CASE STUDY

In this case study a process equipment manufacturer organization (name changed Promu Equipment Manufacturers) in India was considered for analyzing the implementation challenges of management information system and solutions considered to overcome these challenges for successful implementation. Promu is involved in design & manufacturing of process equipment such as Pressure Vessels, Heat Exchangers, Agitators, Boilers, Dryers, Storage Tanks & Reactors etc. for large scale chemical, power plants, food processing, biotechnology & petroleum industry. [1] Critical Success Factors for Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation and
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management of funds, validation of computerized design & reports with manual systems etc. The company has identified a core team of 8 members, one being at a very senior level who can take the decisions quickly to fully implement the management information system across all the groups in the organization. These eight members were from different groups such as Marketing, Planning, Production, Procurement, Software, Engineering, Personal & Finance. The above core group was responsible for evaluating issues of computerization, define appropriate solutions, development of these solutions internally or involving external teams as needed & successful implementation of these solutions in the organization. Following sections explains the challenges faced, solutions implemented and derived benefits with the implementation of appropriate solutions.

similar activities during that period. The productivity is considered as lower if more efforts are required. Following table indicates design & manufacturing of certain equipment considered for collecting the data and measuring the productivity before and just after implementation of MIS: Table 1 Description of Process Equipment
Item Code Equipment EQP-01 Heat Exchanger Pressure Vessel Agitator Description Stainless steel Heat Exchanger with 100 copper tubes and brass tube sheet for medium pressure Stainless Fermenter with 6mm thickness & 100 m3 volume 8m long, 15cm shaft diameter with 3 blades in stainless steel A stainless distillation vessel with 4mm thick, 20 meter height 40 trays inside Verify the hardware design

EQP-02 EQP-03 EQP-04 EQP-05 EQP-06

Storage Tank 200 m3 volume with Mild-steel Distillation Column Boiler

IV. OBJECTIVE & SCOPE

The objective of this paper includes: Analyzing the manual system & understanding challenges faced just after implementation of management information system. Crafting strategic solutions, seamless implementation & derived benefits upon applying the strategic solutions to fully implement MIS. The scope of this paper includes: Understanding the case study considered in writing this paper Analyzing issues observed just after implementation of MIS Listing strategic solutions implemented to address issues & challenges Looking at derived benefits after implementing outlined strategies.

Following diagram indicates the comparison of efforts required for design and manufacturing of above equipment two years prior to implementation of MIS and the year of implementation of MIS.

V. REVIEW & ANALYSIS

The executive team has collected the productivity data of various functions prior to implementation of MIS and just after implementation of MIS. The productivity was measured in terms of efforts for a specified duration for
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Figure1: Efforts Required to Manufacture Equipment

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Above diagram indicates that the efforts required to design and manufacture various equipment in a 3 months time frame and also the start & end schedule for each equipment. The light grey color indicates efforts required before implementing MIS and dark grey color indicates efforts required just after implementation of MIS. It shows that more efforts are required just after implementation of MIS due to some redundant activities and more time taken to understand and enter the data into the system. From the review and analysis of data before implementation of MIS and just after implementation of MIS the executive team observed that various teams were not following the MIS efficiently. It was observed that there was lot of duplication in activities, executing both manual and using computing systems. This situation was noticed by the executive management team from the status reviews & started thinking about how to improve productivity by making use of MIS effectively.

VI. ISSUES & CHALLENGES

In a typical scenario the organization faces lot of issues and challenges during implementation of MIS. These issues related to Change of human behavior, Understanding the new systems, Ensure accuracy of the results with new systems, More efforts and time required to complete a task at the beginning, More reviews and guidance from experienced persons in MIS & Functional domain etc. Following were the few challenges observed just after implementation of MIS: There was no enough documentation available to understand how to use and manage the data while working through MIS. Not many trained professionals were available who can explain and guide the large teams. Individuals were waiting long duration to get certain clarifications. In the meantime they were switching back to manual system. The overall planning activity was not proper. Enough time was not allocated to complete the task by the individuals considering new systems.
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Lot of time required in coordinating with interdependent teams as everyone in the organization was new to use the MIS systems. Some of the individuals were spending duplicate of efforts due to non-confident about the results come out of the MIS. Initially the systems were slow as the network bandwidth was not sufficient and application response was slow due to congestion in database. Since most of the individuals were comfortable following manual systems, there was a strong resistance in the beginning for shifting to MIS. Since most of the staff was not from computer background, some of the basic issues were also need to be resolved by the software or system expert. The organization did not really benefit with the financials after implementation of MIS. The executive team observed that the share price dropped, operating expenses increased, debt accumulated, and margins were declined etc.

VII. PROPOSED OPTIONS

From the analysis of data, it was clearly understood that the organization was not really leveraging MIS implementation efficiently to offer lower product cycle times, design optimizations, effective production planning, efficient inventory management, proficient executive management reports etc. Based on above analysis, the management team asked key team leaders in respective functional areas to arrange a common meeting to discuss: How to leverage MIS capabilities by all the functional groups efficiently. How to share knowledge between groups without impacting the production. How to avoid duplicity or redundancy in performing certain tasks. How do we ensure teams to stop using manual systems for which computerization implemented. How to standardize certain processes across the teams to bring clarity.
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Based on multiple meetings with senior leaders from all the functional groups management team has proposed few options given below to overcome the issues and challenges just after implementing management information system. Option-1: Discard the manual systems for the functions where MIS was implemented on predefined cut-off date. Anticipated risk in this option as some of the employees who have not yet trained on new systems may not be able to produce proper results using MIS. Option-2: Implement MIS in fullest extent where the employees are clear about MIS for other areas continue with manual system where employees still need trainings in implementation of MIS. Options-3: Identify core group of 8 members having one leader from each functional area and one among the 8 will be heading the core group to review and take quick decisions. Prepare a plan for complete implementation with resolution of all back log issues and new issues if any. Executive team has reviewed alternative options and defined few workable strategies around Option-3 as described below to address issues & challenges in implementation of management information system.

VIII. SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED

After thorough analysis, the management team formulated few solutions to address the issues with implementation of MIS. The executive management team has created a core team (task force) of 8 members one from each functional group to understand issues and implement following strategic solutions. Identified implementation gaps and planned for completion Reviewed the implementation status just after first level of implementation and collected all the gaps from functional leaders to plan properly for successful closure of MIS implementation. Modified organization structure to align relevant functions
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Core team has analyzed the issues with reference to organization structure just after implementation of MIS and re-aligned to mitigate the issues. Ex.1: Earlier Stores, Inventory & Production functions were managed independently by respective leaders. After implementation of MIS there was some coordination issues observed between these teams. The core group has decided to merge Stores and Inventory under Production Management. Ex.2: Earlier Marketing & Customer support were two different teams. After implementation of MIS the issues were noticed in managing the customer feedback between these two groups. Hence the core team has moved Customer support under Marketing. Ex.3: Earlier Production Planning Control (PPC) was an independent group responsible for creating bill of material, coordinating with procurement to make available required items & planning resources to various production units. After MIS implementation this group was discarded and allocated bill of material preparation to engineering team & other two functions to Production Management. Allocate time & budget (additional efforts) for trainings The core group has identified process trainings required to understand how to use MIS, how to obtain & enter data required in MIS applications. The core team has also arranged trainings to explain the rationale behind implementing the MIS and how it benefits in the day to day activities at various levels for different functions in the organization. This solution helped teams to not only obtain missing knowledge but also built networking for future interactions to get the required clarifications. Modify the existing documentation to suite MIS requirements There were few documents like specification sheets, bill of materials, inventory records, stores
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ledger, customer requirements & invoice etc. modified to suite MIS applications. Some of the procurement components & raw materials have been provided with unique numbering system to easily correlate in procurement, stores, finance, production & inspection records. This strategy helped teams to reduce the entry of repetitive data. Most of the items were pre-entered into database to enable user to select the required items. Manage spare capacity appropriately with proper allocation Upon implementing MIS, there was an additional capacity available from machines due to design optimizations and also spare capacity available from manpower due to reduction in manual tasks. These surplus capacities were used for design and production of additional equipment. These capacities were identified through proper work study (method study & work measurement) techniques This enable not only using surplus capacities but also provided diversified opportunities to employees and also optimum utilization of machinery. Well defined responsibility & authenticity in the system The core team has defined well-structured responsibilities for various functional groups and appropriate authentication was provided in the system. The access permissions of individual login allowed doing certain tasks based on their levels. Ex.1: Sales Engineer cannot able to offer discount on total project value, however sales manager have permission to provide discount. Ex.2: Procurement Engineer cannot decide the payment terms with vendors, however procurement manager can alter the standard values based on need. This strategy enabled all the functional groups to work on their respective assignments without any duplicity. It has also provided better control over
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financials as the system allows only authenticated persons to do certain tasks where it involves financial implications in the decisions. Prototyping MIS implementation with manual system to validate One of the issues noticed were most of the MIS applications for various groups were implemented without enough sample runs. During the sample runs 3 stages were followed. Stage 1: Run activities through manual system as well as MIS. However consider the results produced from manual system and validate the results received from MIS with manual results. Provide appropriate feedback to respective teams & MIS implementation team. Stage 2: Run activities through manual system as well as MIS. However consider the results produced from MIS and validate these results with manual system results. Feedback provided to system implementers & respective teams. Repeat Stage2 one or two times to ensure correct output from the system. Stage 3: Discard the manual system and continue to use MIS. This was enabled to reduce the downtimes during the actual production implementation and also provided enough training to users. Customized user interface in MIS to simulate manual system The standard User Interface (UI) was not very user friendly and it was taking lot of time to navigate and enter the data. This issue was identified during the initial review and made certain changes in UI to simulate manual system. Ex.1: While creating purchase order, the standard system UI was not displayed the discount factor, however in practice this entry is required. Ex.2: While creating bill of material system was not accepting non-standard pipe sizes. However in practice there are certain fabricated pipes for which the pipe diameter may not be as per standards.
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This enables system applications to simulate the manual system which will reduce the duplicity of work and convenient for user to follow the existing process. Identified network issues and enhanced the bandwidth as needed Users faced serious issues with network bandwidth due to which they were unable to complete the tasks in time which dependent on the system. In some cases users used to shift to manual system to complete the task. This issue was resolved by increasing the network bandwidth and also enhancing the processing speed of individual working systems. This was enabled not only speed up the activities but users were also motivated to do more tasks in a given time frame. Checked the performance of database servers and upgrade Users faced system performance issues though the network bandwidth was good. The core team has identified that the issue was with database server. The server was choked due to large quantum of requests from users. This problem was resolved by certain extent with changes in database architecture and also increased the system capacity (Processor, Memory & Storage) to enhance the performance. This enabled quicker response from database which in-turn helped to reduce the overall time required to complete certain tasks. Close monitoring of the results till the MIS was fully implemented There were almost negligible or no reviews and quick resolution of issues just after implementation of MIS. This was impacted some of the functional groups in using MIS and they started using manual systems to complete the tasks. The core group has noticed this issue and created a small application to log the issue requests from users. The core group has also created a small virtual team with technical & domain experts to quickly understand these issues and resolve at the earliest possible based on priority.
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This enabled users to get their resolutions quickly and prevent them to switch over to the manual system again.

Figure2: Efforts Required to Manufacture Equipment Above diagram indicates efforts required for design and development of equipment just after implementation of MIS and after implementing efficient solutions to overcome the issues faced just after implementation of MIS. The diagram indicates that the efforts required after implementing solutions is much lower than the efforts required just after implementation of MIS. From the following table it is clearly understood that the effective implementation of solutions helped to reduce the overall efforts.
Table 2 Comparison of Efforts for Manufacturing
Item Code EQP-01 EQP-02 EQP-03 EQP-04 EQP-05 EQP-06 Equipment Efforts in Weeks to Manufacture Equipment Case-A Heat Exchanger Pressure Vessel Agitator Storage Tank Distillation Column Boiler 8 4 4 4 10 6 Case-B 10 6 6 5 12 8 Case-C 6 3 3 3 8 5

Case-A: Efforts Before Implementation of MIS Case-B: Efforts Just After Implementation of MIS Case-C: Efforts After Implementing Solutions
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The efforts saved will benefit the organization to reduce the development cost, time to market, increase the share value, reduce the price and enhance the margins etc.

[3] Waman S Jawadekar 2007, Management Information Systems Text and Cases (3rd ed.), Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd., New Delhi. [4] Gefen, D. What Makes an ERP Implementation Relationship Worthwhile: Linking Trust Mechanisms and ERP Usefulness. Journal of Management Information Systems, 21: K 2004, pp. 263-288. [5] Sashikala, B.(2005) Decision Support Systems for Making Better Decisions. The ICFAI Journal of Systems Management, Vol.-III, No.-3. Hydrabad:ICFAI University, p;26-35. [6] Robey, D., J.W. Ross, and M.-C. Boudreau. Leaming to Implement Enterprise Systems: An Exploratory Study of the Dialectics of Change, Journal of Management Information Systems. 19:1, 2002, pp 17-46. [7] Dr. Milind Oka, 2009, Management Information Systems Text and Cases (16th ed.), Everest Publishing House, Pune. [8] Hong, K.K. and Y.G. Kim. The Critical Success Factors for ERP Implementation: An Organizational Fit Perspective, Information and Management 40:1, 2002, pp. 25-40.

IX. CONCLUSION
The organization faced lot of challenges in the beginning (just after MIS implementation) due to lack of enough focus & strategic approach in implementation. After implementing above solutions the organization has delivered equipment in much lesser time frame. This approach was well appreciated by internal & external stakeholders and the organization not only turned around to get into good financial health & profit margins but also successfully implemented MIS for further business growth.

X. REFERENCES
[1] Bingi, P., M.K. Sharma, and J. Godla. Critical Issues Affecting an ERP Implementation, Information Systems Management, 16:2, 1999, pp. 7-14. [2] Graham, Cruits and Cobham, David (2005). Business Information System: Analysis, Design and Practice5th ed. Delhi: Pearson education, p; 686.

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