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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Enterprise resource planning systems: An assessment of applicability to make-to-order companies
AU - Aslan, Bulut
AU - Stevenson, Mark
AU - Hendry, Linda
PY - 2012/9
Y1 - 2012/9
N2 - Many vendors of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems claim their products are widely applicable–configurable to meet the needs of any business, whatever the product or service offering. But Make-To-Order (MTO) companies, which produce high-variety and bespoke products, have particularly challenging decision support requirements and it remains unclear whether ERP systems can meet their needs. This paper takes a contingency-based perspective of ERP adoption, assessing the fit or alignment between ERP functionality and a MTO production strategy. MTO features considered include: decision support requirements at critical Production Planning and Control (PPC) stages, idiosyncratic market-related features, typical company size and supply chain positioning, and shop floor configuration. It finds a substantial gap or misalignment between ERP functionality and MTO requirements; for example, between decision support provided by ERP systems and the decision support required by MTO companies at the customer enquiry and design & engineering stages. A research agenda for improving alignment is outlined, with implications for academics, MTO managers and ERP software developers. This includes: developing decision support tools that reflect the customer enquiry management activities of MTO companies; embedding MTO-relevant PPC concepts within ERP systems; and, conducting an in-depth empirical study into applications of ERP systems in MTO companies, assessing their performance impact.
AB - Many vendors of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems claim their products are widely applicable–configurable to meet the needs of any business, whatever the product or service offering. But Make-To-Order (MTO) companies, which produce high-variety and bespoke products, have particularly challenging decision support requirements and it remains unclear whether ERP systems can meet their needs. This paper takes a contingency-based perspective of ERP adoption, assessing the fit or alignment between ERP functionality and a MTO production strategy. MTO features considered include: decision support requirements at critical Production Planning and Control (PPC) stages, idiosyncratic market-related features, typical company size and supply chain positioning, and shop floor configuration. It finds a substantial gap or misalignment between ERP functionality and MTO requirements; for example, between decision support provided by ERP systems and the decision support required by MTO companies at the customer enquiry and design & engineering stages. A research agenda for improving alignment is outlined, with implications for academics, MTO managers and ERP software developers. This includes: developing decision support tools that reflect the customer enquiry management activities of MTO companies; embedding MTO-relevant PPC concepts within ERP systems; and, conducting an in-depth empirical study into applications of ERP systems in MTO companies, assessing their performance impact.
KW - Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
KW - Make-To-Order (MTO)
KW - Applicability
KW - Literature review
U2 - 10.1016/j.compind.2012.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.compind.2012.05.003
M3 - Journal article
VL - 63
SP - 692
EP - 705
JO - Computers in Industry
JF - Computers in Industry
SN - 0166-3615
IS - 7
ER -