Network Design Proposal for Pacific

Network Design Proposal for Pacific Auto Rebuilding

For Pacific Auto Rebuilding (PAR) to provide responsive service to its customers while at the same time increasing internal accounting, order capture, order management and project management systems and processes, a network-based system is proposed. It is the intent of this proposal to provide PAR with insights into how they can significantly improve the performance of their company by concentrating on process improvements enabled by information technologies investments. From an analysis of the automated parts and inventory control system, order management, and project management processes within the company, it is clear that selectively automating key aspects of thee processes will provide PAR with significant cost and time efficiency savings or time. This proposal illustrates for PAR how the long lead-times of engine repair for example can be made both more efficient and profitable by creating a strategic-level process to manage this profit center. Analysis of workflows within PAR highlights how critical it is for these longer duration projects to be managed exceptionally well, with suitable financial controls to ensure they attain the highest levels of profitability. Inherent in gaining these advantages, the process workflows between the office building and shop require first greater clarification, and second, selectively automation. The role of information technologies in the context of this proposal is to augment process-based recommendations that will be made as part of the implementation process. By concentrating on how to make the automated parts and inventory control. Order management, and project management workflows more efficient, PAR will attain higher levels of profitability and earnings growth which can provide funds to invest in expansion.

Enabling Greater Efficiency at PAR with the Proposed System

For PAR to attain the efficiencies they need in order to ensure their long-term engine repair and rebuilding projects are profitable, the company must concentrate on streamlining these core process areas. Beginning with automated parts and inventory control, there is no formalized process for managing this between the two buildings, and as a result there are latent inefficiencies in how these parts are order and inventory accounted for. The use of a company-wide accounting and inventory management system that could provide real-time reporting of inventory positions and control points, including re-ordering points, would provide significant opportunities for cost reduction. A comparable situation exists for the order capture process, which today is not integrated to the project management tasks and processes. Order capture, to be effective, must be integrated tightly to project management in order to have an accurate quote and plan for completing an engine rebuilding process. Third, and most significant, there is a lack of order traceability and project management reporting and financial traceability throughout the company today. This is the most severe problem as today PAR does not have enough visibility into their costs per project. The need for tracking costs to the project level, in addition to exception handling for customers' specific requested parts or overhauls, is crucial to be taken into account in managing the workflow within the company. In addition to all these factors the need for streamlining how accounting, financial, spare parts, and incremental costs are managed all need greater levels of reporting accuracy and control. The proposed system will be able to deliver exception and cost, hours and project variance reports, all aimed at more efficiency and profitability in the managing of long-term projects.

Major Issues Involved In Systems Planning and Implementation

There are several major issues that PAR must keep in mind with regard to the system implementation proposed. First, the adoption of this proposal or any comparable to it will require the core process areas of the business including automating inventory parts and inventory control, order capture and order management, and consolidation project management all require process-based re-engineering. It is the recommendation of this firm to first complete a thorough process audit and re-defining of process workflows first, and then selectively layer in the proposed technologies in this proposal. What is most significant in terms of the process and technological integration is the need to have a greater level of traceability and management of the projects and their resulting impacts on all aspects of the firm. PAR needs to have a set of processes first designed that provide visibility into how projects impact parts and inventory control, a definition of the order capture process' costs associated with project-based service delivery, and lastly, how project management at a company-wide level can make a significant contributions to increasing profits.

It is also anticipated that based on the extent of the information gathering and reporting, entirely new insights into how PAR competes will also emerge. Trending and financial analysis not possible before due to the manual nature of the existing processes in effect hid valuable insights into how PAR can improve over time. Automating these processes and also creating reporting systems to capture them will allow PAR to gain greater insights into their company while also creating more potential alternatives for managing projects more efficiently over time.

In addition to the mentioned benefits and issues, there is also the issue of change management. It is expected that there will be a level of resistance to change regarding the new system. It is advisable for the owners of PAR to actively participate in the system planning and implementation process to further lower resistance to change. The need for employees to be directly involved in the development, testing and validation of thee system is also critical so they attain ownership of it as well.

Potential Benefits from the Proposed System