Project Management

SchmidtCO (A) ERP Automated System

Harvard Business School
Executive summary
SchmidtCo based in Philadelphia (imports) as a master N. America for European industrial and automotive manufacturers for
replacement parts. SchmidtCo manpower around 90 employees worin! in Philadelphia" #A" and $e%ico City and was
established in &9'0 by (ohn Schmidt !randfather and run by his father. (ohn Schmidt ()'*year*old) operations mana!er and also
pro+ect mana!er ma+orin! in electrical , electronic en!ineerin! !raduate was mana!in! E-P automated system worin! in
SchmidtCo for around fi.e years. /e is e%perienced as electronic warfare in 0S Air 1orce and continuin! to wor alon! with his
father at SchmidtCo. 2hile mana!in! SchmidtCo it was reali3ed by (ohn that in.entory mana!ement system was to be adopted
for effecti.e functionin! and mana!ement with the help of an automated system (Enterprise -e4uirements Plannin!" E-P).
5his system was su!!ested to mana!e and control its supplies and 4uantities a.ailability of automobile parts and spare parts from
nuts to radiators as they had been manually mana!in! appro%imately &0"000 different items distributed in different locations.
SchmidtCo was ineffecti.ely runnin! with an obsolete &6*year*old system that also sometimes had to mana!e manually and the
pro+ect was behind schedule for ) months and e%ceeded 0S7 '0"000. 5he system was of bad 4uality and functionin! inefficiently
that e.en caused the loss of their customer who ran out of business.

SchmidtCo hired part*time consultant supported by 85 $ana!er who had limited information in recent technolo!ies. E.en thou!h
it was too late for chan!in! system implemented howe.er for ur!in! to a!reein! was roused. 2hen the new system was decided
to implement (ohn planned for selection of new team for launchin! this E-P pro+ect. 9ut of &0 modules ' modules (warehousin!"
in.entory" accountin!" purchasin!" and sales , customer relationship mana!ement) were reco!ni3ed that re4uired critical
de.elopment and further impro.ement for effecti.e functionin! of SchmidtCo. 5he main concern was to determine and system
initiati.e whene.er there is re4uirement for products 4uantity and timely reminder for main! it a.ailable in order to support
mana!in! supplies in terms of 4uantity" price" duration" type of product" and so on.
5he SchmidtCo pro+ect team spent around ) months only in searchin! and selectin! .endor for pro.idin! and de.elopin! this
system. As a result of the sur.ey and search result ) companies were short listed and & was selected :75ech:. (ohn was only
concern about implementin! the system and was not into totally concentratin! the possibilities after implementation lie an
analysis. 5he 0S based company e%pense was 0S7 ;00"000. 5he main ob+ecti.e of E-P system was to reduce staff and also
pro.ide e%cellent ser.ice for the clients. 7urin! the period of implementin! the system e%pense up to 0S7 <00"000 which was
o.er pro+ected bud!et and amount.
5he final step was launchin! the system" submittin! reports (85 $ana!er)" data con.ersion from paper wor to automated system"
and e%ecution for !oin! li.e. 5o mae further impro.ement in the implementation phase 7a.id =oldber! was hired (Chief
8nformation 9fficer) who 4ualified $>A was ma+orin! in $85 and also pre.iously e%perienced ?P sales in Software Company.
5he main purpose hirin! was to continue pro+ect assi!ned in complemented by pre.ious consultant who left unreliable system.
(ohn was almost incurrin! e%penses in such a system that he had to rein.est and re*do pro+ect from A*@ due to its inefficiency.
1inally it was to select alternati.e short listed company and switchin! company assi!ned as supplier of the pro+ect. /owe.er the
pro+ect mana!er was assi!ned to lead the pro+ect re*launch and also hire new 85 mana!er to do technical reportin! that was
pendin! from pre.ious 85 $ana!er. All to!ether they had to decide final decision.