Australian Plastic Fabricators: Improving Information And Manufacturing System Essay.

1. Identify the company’s critical success factors and primary objectives. What types of information might be helpful in evaluating these objectives? Create a mission statement that would be appropriate for your client business.
2. Develop a formal organizational chart based on the information given.
3. Analyse the current system and identify specific control weaknesses that must be addressed by a new, improved system. As part of your analysis, prepare a document flowchart and a data flow diagram of the current system.
4. Describe the primary features of this new system and explain why this is the best solution for your client to pursue. Discuss the relevance of such advanced technologies as MRP, MRPII, and EDI as information system options.
5. The proposal should also contain the following items:
a. A description of the technology platform for the system.
b. A list of financial and nonfinancial data attributes for each entity in the ER diagram.
c. Four user views, which can be source documents or management reports. At least one view should support the needs of a non-accounting user.
d. Examine potential security risks, data breaches and provide discussion of the appropriate accounting controls for the new system.

Company’s critical success factors and primary objectives

Australian Plastic Fabricators is one of the dynamic plastic fabrication company which is located in Sydney’s city fringe and is one of the Greater West supplying acrylic shop fittings to Sydney retail and shop fitting businesses. The organization is also considered to be the one stop shop for meeting all the needs related to Acrylic. Without any kind of doubt this organization can be considered to be the market leader in terms of planning, designing, and manufacturing of the acrylics and plastic fabrication in Sydney, Australia. They have been associated with putting together a dedicated team of professional tradespeople from all across Australia and all around the globe so as to provide service towards the acrylic and fabrication needs.

Over last few years in terms of the production value, Australian Plastic Fabricators has been at the top of the list. The reason behind the success of the organization includes the quality of work force, the wise investment and the proliferation of the collaborative production with the members existing in the upper level of the supply chain along with the rapid growth of the lower level member information industry and lastly the steady increase in the sales of acrylic and the needs of the fabrication. Amongst the many other fabrication suppliers, the Australian Plastic Fabrication the acrylic providers are comparatively at the upper level (Singh, Singh and Kaur 2017). Acrylic are used for various purpose and by different organizations as well. For all this reason the cross-straits trade is becoming more and more commonplace day by day, the need of the new information systems or particularly the manufacturing information systems has become very strong. The uncertain reliable production along with the manufacturing information, the supply parts or the materials and the status of the production has already become one of the major challenges that the fabrication industry must face and overcome. The new system is to be implemented with a hope that it would be capable of expanding the electronic capability to upper and lower suppl chain members and other companies where it has dealings (Becker et al. 2018). By this they would be capable of strengthening the speed of the supplier chain response. The organization is not dependent upon the close finance and the PMI systems. There also exist a system known as the legacy system which is associated with dealing with the work-in-progress or the WIP, machine control and many more so as to maintain the sales of the company and the tasks related to sales.

Current System of Australian Plastic Fabricators

The finance along with the human resources and the PMI are generally performed with a closed platform. Due to the fact that the systems have been used for numerous years and is a closed system, so it can be stated that it is not having the capability to process the information for the purpose of dealing with the future strengthening of the supply chain. Shop flow WIP along with the processing of the work order is generally performed by making use of the shop floor control software which are supplied by the numerous local software companies. Besides this the current system of the organization also lacks the capability of integrating the front-end sales along with the purchasing and the inventory with the back-end finance operations (Ptak and Schragenheim 2016). Additionally, the current system is also showing signs related to the incapability of keeping up with the demands that the latest designs are having, the short-term delivery deadlines and the flexible production as well. For this reason, the organization has been associated with planning for the implementation of a new system which would eb acting as a replacement of the existing closed transaction and the WIP systems. The figure provided below is associated with depicting the current IT structure of the organization.

Material resource planning or the MRP is suggested for the Australian Plastic Fabricators. This is the integrated business operating system which is commonly to be adopted by the organization (Salaheldin 2019). This is also considered to be a people-computer interactive system which is associated with defining the responsibilities of the different parties and for carrying out the communication functions amongst the department, suppliers and customers of the organization.

Below is the figure which depicts the model of MRP. It is essential to make sure of the fact that before the organization is defining the system the company necessarily needs to make plan regarding the ways by which the organization is going the run the business (Avgerou and Walsham 2017). For this reason, the products and services need to be defined along with the target market segments or the customers served, the resources which includes the skills of the people, the technology, the required equipment, the competition which includes the price, quality, delivery faced, the financial plans which includes the growth, the profits, the ROI inventory levels that are to be achieved or other goals (Miclo et al. 2018).  Besides this the financial and the strategic planning is associated with identification of all the above stated factors along with defining the respective parameters which is followed by putting them into consideration in the business planning process f Australian plastic Fabricators.

The Primary features of the new MRP solution

The business plan is associated with the optimization of the different factors into consideration and is associated with the adjusting of the goals if it is at all needed. It is possible to differentiate this into 3 different levels which is entirely dependent upon the time horizons. Besides this the long-range planning is associated with overviewing the following 5 years the company would go (Vasquez et al. 2016). The sales and the operation planning are associated with taking a horizon of around one and a half years whereas the Annual Budget Exercise would be associated with setting the objectives in every coming year.

Followed by this the sales and the operation planning are considered to be the process which is led by the senior management which is to be evaluated on a monthly basis along with being revised (Santin et al. 2015). This is also time-based and is associated with projecting the supply demand and the resulting financial achievements as well. This is one of the decision-making process which is associated with ensuring the fact that all the practical plans in each of the business functions ate aligned and are associated with supporting the business plan (Silva, Silva and da Silva Rosa 2016). The major objective behind this is to reach consensus on a single operating plan which would eb associated with allocating the critical resources that the peoples are having along with the capacity, materials, time and the money so as to meet the marketplace in an effective way as well as in a profitable way.

The relationship that would eb existing amongst the sales and the operations planning, rough-cut capacity planning and the demand management has been shown below in the figure.

Production plan is the budget that would be assigned to the Master Production Schedule or the MPS whereas the MPS is considered to be build schedule in terms of the products which are to be delivered within the specific date with the quantities that are already stated (Yeh, Lee and Liu 2016).

RCCP is another major component that is to be included which is also known as the Rough-Cut Capacity Planning that is considered to be a set of logical steps by making use of the information related to the demands of the customers and the manufacturing capacity. This is to be done so as to optimize the matches that exists between this two (Ha’apio, Leal Filho and Wairiu 2018). The demand management of the MRP would be associated with integrating the marketing plans along with the plans related to sales, pans for the new products, plans for the initiatives or projects, forecasts and the orders of the customers with the operational and business plans that the Australian Plastic Fabricators are having.

As stated earlier, MPS is the commitment towards management which is aimed at the production of certain quantities of goods within a provided time. For the purpose of deriving this decision there exist the need of considering the forecasts of the future requirements of the customers along with the order backlogs which would eb acting as the input(Favaretto and Marin 2018). Followed by this the system would be associated with the optimization of these particular requirements with the production capacity which would be consisting of the manpower as the equipment facilities. This would be followed by the production of a schedule which would eb associated with stating the requirements related to the goods in different time frames.

It is possible to categorize the detailed materials or the capacity planning into two major components and this includes the Material Requirements Planning and the Capacity Requirements Planning. Whenever the MPS is associated with outputting the goods which are required and is meeting all the requirements, then the Material Requirements planning process would be associated with checking the bills of this materials for the corresponding finished goods (Šurka et al. 2016). Followed by this, would eb calculation of the respective components which are needed for manufacturing. By having the inventory records, the process would eb associated with deducing the material plan. Once this is completed the Capacity Planning Process would be associated with calculating the required capacity and would also be responsible for the measuring the demonstrated capacity as well. Once it is completed the two parameters would be compared so as to decide the adjustments that needs to be done in any one of them.

The Plant Scheduling in the MRP that is to be used by Australian Plastic Fabricators would eb associated with involving the detailed work flow planning process amongst the various work centres. There generally exist two types of work flow and this includes the Job Shop and the Flow Shop model. The Job Shop Model is associated with the grouping of the resources in accordance to their types and would be associated with involving the moving and queuing of the resources in the different production departments (Kortabarria et al. 2018). Whereas, the Flow Shop Model is associated with grouping the resources in accordance to the process and for this reason this type of planning is associated with involving the minimum movements and queuing amongst the other operation.

The Whole MRP process has been discussed above which is to be used by the organization Australian Plastic Fabricators and it is to be noted that the entire flow is not a one-way flow but the doubly arrow head is associated with implication of the fact that they are back and forth. The operations of each of the process can be adjusted in accordance to the feedback which are received from the subsequent process and is associated with forming a closed loop system.

There exists various internal as well as external factors which are likely to have an huge impact upon the production as well as the operation decision of the Australian Public Fabricators. The expectations that are customers are having never stops rising and along with the amplification of the competition are of major concern (Misra, Bisui and Mahapatra 2018). Besides this there are also challenges like the shortened product life cycles, existence of the inventories related to opportunity cost, and lastly it is never possible to predict the macroenvironment in a precise way. For this reason, each and every business entity is associated with requiring an integrated business operating system and one such is the Equator.

Equator is one of the closed planning systems that is to be used by the proposed MRP so as to provide service to the customers. This would be associated with encompassing along with defining the entire manufacturing process along with forecasting the demands of the customers related to the goods that are needed which acts as the input to the system. This is done through the internal processing which means it is associated with demanding coordination by making use of the rough-cut capacity planning, along with demand for planning and execution. This is done till the manufacturing capacity is collected as the final result (Shahrasbi and Paré 2015). Customers would eb associated with receiving the assured supply which figures at the end. This is associated with forming the closed loop system. Closed loop planning is just considered to eb the lever associated with the aligning and balancing of the company’s supply with the demand of eh customers. Below is the figure which is associated with summarizing the process flow of this concept.

Equator is considered to be modelled from the MRP or the material Resource Planning concepts and is considered to to be the Closed loop which is associated with implication of the fact that there not only exist the information flow from the customer end to the planning process but there also exist the feedback which are received from the execution functions (Yeh, Lee and Liu 2016). This is done so as to make sure that the planning is always kept valid at all the times.

As discussed earlier the sales and the operations planning is associated with encompassing the finance, the demands related to coordination, the rough-cut capacity planning and the introduction of the new products. For this reason, the processes would eb associated with allowing the organization Australian public Fabricators in utilizing the capacity of the factory in a better way so as to meet all the service policy of the organization (Favaretto and Marin 2018). Besides this at the same time it would be associated with providing support to the business plans along with insuring the fact that are plans are realistic. This would be also associated with the management of the inventory, the lead timing, the backlogs, the capacity and lastly the demands.

Initiation of demand coordination is also to be done which is considered to be one of eth initiative associated with improving the way by which the organization is associated with capturing the demand data along with generation of the worldwide requests for the production. This is the demands of the customers related to the products from the organization. The data is to eb inputted over an 18 months horizon by making use of the sale forces of the organization in every month by following a rolling process (Kortabarria et al. 2018). This in turn would be associated with addressing the previous lack of customer demand information which in turn would be subsequently associated with leading to the allocation of the events. Once the RPF tool is implemented the sales force of the organization would be integrated into the closed loop planning process which would be associated with enabling the employees in managing the accounts globally (Bianchini, Darú and Berger 2017). Additionally, it is targeted towards improvements along with on-time delivery and responsiveness towards the customers.

Followed by this the Rough-Cut Planning would be associated with yielding the Assured Supply or AS which is considered to be the feedback that would be provided to the sales forces or to the customers regarding the way in which the organization is primarily planning so as to support the products on a monthly basis. This is the feedback which would be mostly welcomed by the customers and is unparalleled with the history of the company. This would be also associated with sending out the production plan for the next process that is the Detailed Capacity Planning (Misra, Bisui and Mahapatra 2018). There exist four data elements which are associated with governing the various operations included in the process. All this would be analysed and the production would be executed in accordance to the master production schedule which is to be released. Followed by this the organization would be associated with informing the customers regarding the products and the order status in more details. The flow of information is not in one direction and the feedbacks received from the customers would be directed in the opposite way which would be enabling the individual processes to adjust accordingly.

Unified Standards: Before the implementation of the Equator the company did not have any conforming rules so as to process and manufacture the products. The organization would be becoming independent as there would exist their own standards and procedures related to the receiving of the orders from the sales and the marketing side as well as for the processing of the orders. So, it can be sated that the sales and the marketing people of the organization would be requiring to work by taking help from the various guidelines (Šurka et al. 2016). Chaos would be greatly reduced and the unified standards would be associated with drastic simplification of the procedures and would be helping in becoming more systematic.

Convergence of the goals: Along with the establishment of the S&OP meetings in every moth there would also exist an agreed upon set of number which is presented to all the parties who are concerned (Shahrasbi and Paré 2015). This in turn would be helping in resolving the conflicts at n early stage. Besides this each business unit would base upon one set of number so as to continue their work and by this way goal convergence can be achieved.

One face: The usage of the MRP by the organization would be helping the customers a lot as the customers would be perceiving a service which would be consistent. The major reason behind this is the adoption of the Equator by the organization (Ha’apio, Leal Filho and Wairiu 2018). The equator would be associated with turning the organization from multi-face to a single faced company.

Adaptability to changing needs of the customers: After the establishment of above proposed system the organization would be well prepared for making plans related to their future. From the point of will of the customers they would be receiving the acknowledgements upon the product from the side of the organization (Shahrasbi and Paré 2015). By this way both the sides would become capable of taking precautionary actions in cases in any thing goes wrong or the entire situation changes.

The MRP is generally dependent upon accurate input information and in case if the bills of the materials are not updated then it might lead to certain potential challenges and might lead to encountering of problems in the outputs f the MRP system. These problems might be including the missing parts or excessive order quantity, or delay in schedule and missing of the delivery dates. Another major challenge is that the MRP system which is to eb implemented is difficult to understand along with being time consuming and costly to implement. There also exists transition issues as well. This is mainly due to the reason that the Equator is still in the initial phase.  besides this the priority issues are also included. The satisfactory on-time delivery performance for eth global customers might be at the expense of the poor support provide to the organization.

The need of an effective and an up-to-date MRP is evident due to the current situation of the organization. This MRP implementation would be improving the flow of communication along with the effective use of the resources and increased productivity. Besides this it would also be enhancing the financial control as well. It is recommended that the MRP system is implemented as soon as possible and should not be phased over a period of time. This would be associated with cutting out the ineffective work activities along with assisting in the long-term sustainability of the organization. Some of the major recommendations so as to increase the efficiency of the MRP has been listed below:

• Providing of proper training and education to all the employees.
• The key personnel of the organization are to be identified whose power would be affecting the new MRP system
• Constant revision of the equator so as to reflect the needs of the customers and the latest industry trends
• The monitoring of the latest developments and adjustments in the system accordingly.
• Considering the different human factors

Conclusion:

The study has been associated with investigating and analysing the MRP implementation process at the Australian Plastic Fabricators. The observation has been associated with revelling the fact that the MRP implementation project must be associated with adhering the functions along with the flow of tasks and the modules. The existing flow of the company is to be re-thoughted and modified. The findings of the paper are entirely devoted towards the key factors of the MRP implementation and from this it is evident that the MRP implementation, firstly needs the establishment of the objectives along with clarifying the objectives of each section as well as the manner of corporation existing between the sections. This in turn would be associated with ensuring the improvements in the accuracy of the data and the cycle time of each of the data flow. This MRP program is historical and is associated with revamping the drawbacks faced by the old system. Equator is expected to be an overwhelmingly accepted by the customers as well as by the employees. The employees would be provided with a standard procedure whereas the customers would be very grateful in sharing and cooperating with the various future support plans. It is expected that the equator would be revised at a constant rate so as to reflect the needs of the customers and the latest situation of the industry.

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