Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale Erp Implementation.

Bombardier is a Canadian multinational aerospace and transportation company. The product of the company has aircraft, business jets, mass transportation equipment, recreational equipment and a provider of financial services.

Bombardier has grown substantially via acquisitions since 1989. These acquisitions allowed Bombardier to expand operations, however, in doing so they inherited multiple different information systems, processes and business practices. Bombardier, had become a textbook silo company.

They faced challenges from acquiring many companies because during the acquisitions Bombardier inherited the data, processes and systems of each company which created inefficiencies. Systems didn’t communicate with each other resulting in low inventory turns and price inconsistency. This was not productive for Bombardier and was time consuming for the employees. The biggest problem was the low visibility of inventory and the lack of communication between systems. Bombardier had now a global presence but was not organized to maintain growth without changing the vision and processes. Another challenge is resistance to change, this factor can have a huge impact on the new vision and

This way the IT department can understand what the higher level and lower level employees need for system stability and a better graphical interface. Another plan of action would include the method of Systems Development Life Cycle or SDLC. The phases of this method are planning, analysis, system design, implementation and operation. First we must plan on what exactly we are trying to accomplish. We know we need to upgrade the Riordan Manufacturing system. Next we must analyze the system and look for problematic errors. A project proposal can be essential to launching a system analysis (Farah, 2013). These are things to keep in mind: understand the business situation or problem, understand the significance to the problem in the organization, think of alternate solutions, the use of computer information systems for solutions, find people interested in the solving the problem (Farah, 2013). This plan is used to decrease redundancies, errors, and increase security. Finding all the weak spots in the company will help in the improvement of integrating an updated efficiently functioning system. Feasibility is important to account for when upgrading the system. Integrating a CRM will help to work with customers and understand their needs and wants to benefit the company and the relationship with their customers. Designing the system will involve knowing what kind of software is needed to store and

The implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) system is very complex, and it needs to have a well design implementation plan, well-structured approach, and will require substantial changes on staff and work processes. In the case of Bombardier, the company have learned valuable lessons from their previous implementation process to help them to achieve the project goals. For example: after the implementation at the Mirabel plant, the company decided to add more training material as well as one day refreshers course since they recognized the importance of user preparation. They realized that the project needs to be a manager’s project and no just IT. Also, they senior management made the project a clear priority, and ensure

The implementation portion of the Riordan project could in fact, prove to be one of the most challenging parts. However, this could be the part that is worth all of the effort. There will have to be a team of experienced developers in various different Information Technology fields to see the implementation portion stage through to completion; this cannot be known as a “one-man show.” Several of the departments within the Riordan organization will have to be given priorities when it comes to implementing the new human resource management system. Since this type of system has been deemed automated and is on an Information Technology platform, the

Procurement management is the processes to purchase or acquire the products, services or results needed from outside the project team to perform the work. Project Procurement Management involves not just purchasing products, services or results, but also ensuring that those that are purchased are right for the project, meets standards and is based on project requirements. This life cycle includes tracking from order through deployment and completing with invoice reconciliation.

Bombardier Inc., a diversified manufacturing and service company, is a world leading manufacturer of business jets, regional aircraft, rail transportation equipment. It is also a provider of financial services and asset management. The Corporation employs 79,000 people in 24 countries in the Americas, Europe and AsiaPacific

It is quite challenging to discuss about procurement management without stating the importance of its strategies. There are four main basic procurement strategies that serve different functions within a procurement management. To begin with, a “Partnership” strategy focuses mainly on constructing mutual commitment in long term relationship with suppliers. While a “Secure Supply” strategy aims to secure short and long term supply while reducing risk from suppliers. In addition, a “Category Management and E-Procurement solutions” serves as a tool to reduce logistic complexity, improve operational efficiency, and attempts to reduce the number of suppliers. Lastly, a “Competive Bidding” strategy emphasizes on obtaining the “Best Deal” for short term transactions with suppliers.(van weele) Each of these four strategies involves a unique purchasing methodology, which implies that the complexity is embedded in an individual strategic implication. Therefore, it requires different tools to accomplish the specific strategical characteristics. A business entity may need to support and execute procurement decisions with other strategic apparatus with analytical methods, including market analysis, uncertainty analysis, price forecasting, supplier relationship and along with others.(Harvard)

Bombardier is a family owned public corporation specializing in many different forms of transportation equipment. The company was founded in January 1942 by the late Joseph-Armand Bombardier. It is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Comparing to the option of upgrading the whole procurement system, my recommendation aligns with Russell Menere (National Procurement Manager of BAL)’s idea, which is to implement short term improvements based on current procurement system in

After reading the case study, there were many conditions which I think made the ERP implementation desirable for Bombardier Aerospace. As quoted in the case study by a senior project manager that ‘Organization has become a textbook silo organization’ because of its acquisition strategy. This particular quote is one of the desirable reasons as whenever Bombardier Aerospace acquired any company they adopted the data, process and the systems of each company and hence it was just like a textbook silo. The cost of information system ownership increased due to the increased number of systems. There were process delays, sequential

About PCV procurement, more rational procurement mechanisms, prioritising procurement systems, and giving pooled procurement more prominence and consideration could address the challenge. Comprehensive multi-year strategic plans (cMYP) for

The problem presented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier is the upcoming third round of ERP implementation in his organization. Even though a big improvement over the efficiency and success of execution between the first ERP round (Mirabel plant) and second round (Saint-Laurent plant), there is still room for improvement.

The project did not achieve desirable standards as far as customer requirements, scope, environment and execution were concerned. It was important that the project integrators to ensure customers do not escalate during the implementation of the project, being the first adopters of the software FoxMeyer should have exercised caution by adopting the software in phases rather than implementing the project directly, furthermore, execution was the biggest problem, despite knowing that the project needed skilled personnel FoxMeyer did not train staff during the early stages of the project and had to rely on consultants. Finally the company should have gained control over the project from the start to ensure that all the staff and management were involved but in this case despite knowing that the project would not work as envisaged the management did not take control or stop the implementation of the project.