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- Kaizen Adoption and the IT Bottleneck: Lean management and outdated IT systems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 It then narrows to the specific IT bottleneck created by outdated systems.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).
Kaizen Adoption and the IT Bottleneck
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.
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).
ERP Implementation Challenges Across Subsidiaries
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.
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