Braebill Company ERP Implementation Case Study Analysis
This case study examines the Braebill Company, an 80-year-old manufacturing conglomerate operating five subsidiaries, as it seeks to adopt lean manufacturing practices and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to address global competitive pressures. The paper explores how Braebill's IT department became a bottleneck within its Kaizen management framework and evaluates potential ERP rollout strategies, including a phased pilot approach through subsidiary Westlin. It also considers open-source ERP alternatives, weighing their cost advantages against limitations in scalability for complex multi-division organizations.
- Introduction to Braebill and Competitive Pressures: Braebill's history and global competitive pressures
- Kaizen Adoption and the IT Bottleneck: Lean management and outdated IT systems
- ERP Implementation Challenges Across Subsidiaries: Multi-subsidiary ERP coordination and stakeholder tensions
- Phased Rollout Strategy and Risk Management: Pilot ERP rollout through Westlin subsidiary
- Open-Source Software as an Alternative: OSS ERP options and scalability limitations
- References: Cited academic and professional sources
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds its recommendations in cited academic sources, lending credibility to each proposed solution.
- Clearly identifies the tension between subsidiary-level urgency (Westlin) and corporate-wide integration needs, making the strategic dilemma concrete.
- Balances discussion of the primary ERP option against a viable alternative (open-source software), showing awareness of resource constraints.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a case-study analytical structure: it presents background context, identifies a core organizational problem, evaluates multiple solutions with supporting literature, and compares trade-offs. This approach — situating practical business decisions within academic frameworks like Kaizen and ERP theory — is a hallmark of applied management case analysis at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with Braebill's competitive environment and strategic rationale for lean manufacturing. It then narrows to the specific IT bottleneck created by outdated systems. The middle sections weigh a phased, pilot-based ERP rollout strategy against a corporate-wide simultaneous deployment, incorporating risk management logic. The final section briefly addresses open-source ERP as a cost-conscious alternative before the reference list closes the paper.
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).
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