Braebill Company ERP Implementation Case Study Analysis

Introduction to Braebill and Competitive Pressures

The Braebill Company has been in business for over 80 years and, through a series of acquisitions in 1982, now has five companies under its umbrella. Most focus on seasonal manufacturing — engines, generators, alternative power, and similar products — and the organization is structured around a value-stream proposition. Because of the nature of their business, Braebill recognized the need to adopt a lean manufacturing process in order to remain competitive when faced with global competitive pressures: less expensive imports, stakeholder demands for higher quality at a lower price, and concerns about the environment and sustainability (Eierman and Iverson 2009).

Of course, these pressures are not unique to Braebill, but are being faced by a number of American organizations that struggle to keep up with inexpensive manufacturing costs in Asia and other parts of the world — compounded by fewer regulatory agencies, government subsidies for foreign competitors, and more lax environmental protection laws abroad. Many scholars see that technological innovation and learning, while complex, are among the ways that companies can both remain competitive and lead their market niche in innovation (Dodgson 1991).

Braebill faced significant challenges and adopted a lean management approach known as Kaizen throughout the organization. Despite the nature of this process — which is designed to examine systems, deconstruct them, and then reconstruct them in a more powerful and efficient manner — the IT Department at Braebill became a bottleneck. It was not that personnel did not wish to contribute; it was that the systems were out of date.

Kaizen Adoption and the IT Bottleneck

Faced with this reality, implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system made logical sense. However, for any ERP to work effectively, it had to be flexible. ERP systems are complex, and implementing them can be difficult, time-consuming, and very expensive. Braebill initially assumed it would be a fairly easy transition. However, employees of large organizations with firsthand ERP experience counseled Braebill executives that it might take years for the system to be complete, fully implemented, and functioning within the demands of the Kaizen structure (Mabert 2001).

For a company like Braebill, the only way an ERP system would work profitably is to roll it out corporate-wide, ensuring that each division — effectively each sub-company — integrates its processes in a similar manner. Tensions arose because of differing stakeholder expectations across these companies: Braebill as a whole had other priorities and needed capital, while Westlin (a subsidiary) was already well into the process of selecting its own ERP system.

Braebill's "Vision of Convergence" does appear sincere, as evidenced by the hiring of a dedicated IT director with supporting staff to begin the process, as well as upper management's commitment to using IT as a focal point for driving the company's broader need to standardize operations across its subsidiaries.

ERP Implementation Challenges Across Subsidiaries

Certainly, there are other solutions than a wholesale overhaul of the entire organization's IT infrastructure. One approach would be to implement the ERP system at Westlin as quickly as possible, work out the technical and operational issues, develop a training process, and then invite members of the other companies to train at Westlin prior to their own implementation. The advantage of this approach is lower risk — both fiscally and organizationally. The disadvantage would be slowing down the integration process within the other business groups.

Research shows, however, that rather than basic, software-specific training, a broader understanding of systems integration and the flow of information is needed for ERP to be successful. Additionally, planning for future issues is akin to managing risk, and it might serve Braebill better to beta-test a system before full implementation (Buchanan and Connor 2001). This could be accomplished by forming an organization-wide ERP Implementation Team, with members from each company participating in the work already completed by Westlin. Since so much groundwork has already been done, there is an advantage in both time and costs. By involving individuals from the other groups, there is a greater opportunity for training, organizational buy-in, and appropriate configuration during rollout — which could then be planned on a more cost-effective quarterly basis rather than all at once.