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S CHOOL OF C OMPUTING
Tutor: Y I Cheng
Tutorial Group 3 Team D Submitted in partial fulllment towards credit for IS1105: Strategic IT Applications
Contents
1 Introduction 2 Changing the nature of competition in the automobile industry 2.1 2.2 2.3 Strengthening brand differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Enabling new business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BTO enabling new avenues of interactions with customers . . . . . . . . 3 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 8 9 9 10 11
3 IS improving Operations 3.1 3.2 3.3 Improvement in Design and Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Managing and improving supplier quality in procurement . . . . . . . . . Improving Inventory management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 Conclusion Bibliography
Chapter 1
Introduction
Information systems (IS) have created new opportunities and provided solutions for certain issues facing automobile companies. Companies have taken advantage of this to improve operations, enhance value to their products and to their customers, as well as enable new business models. In this paper, we explore the use of Information Systems in vehicles, the deployment of Information Systems to support business operations of manufacturers, and the impact of doing so on automobile companies.
Chapter 2
with the rise of copycat manufacturers, whom copy designs and specications of vehicles, and proceed to undercut the original manufacturers prot margins. Thus, to improve their brand standing, individual manufacturers have resorted to the inclusion of exclusive features to heighten customers brand awareness. Information systems are extremely useful in this aspect, as the customised software-hardware combination is harder for competitors to duplicate. Each manufacturer has its unique approach to strengthening their in-vehicle information systems. For example, Fords Sync system allows drivers to do online search for their desired destination and then direct drivers to reach their destinations with the assistance of a GPS-guided direction system. BMWs auto parking assistant system help drivers to park their car automatically. With the help of these information systems, these companies differentiate their products from the competition and improved their brand value (Colias 2010). According to Fords Vice-President of Product Derek Kuzak, a third of the companys 14 percent increase in revenue, or about $1,000 per car, was due to application of newly available technology. As can be seen, technological improvements have enabled the companies to be more competitive in this traditional industry, and serve to accelerate the companies growth. This competition of value-added Information Systems may be characterised as intense. Many features once considered proprietary reach feature parity across manufacturers quickly. Information Systems that provide GPS navigation are now common in cars across manufacturers. This demonstrates that the use of IS in vehicles has become a core value-added area in the industry, and poses new challenges as well as opportunities for manufacturers in the industry.
Chapter 3
IS improving Operations
While the incorporation of Information Systems in the innovation in products are part and parcel of automobile makers strategies, a majority of the IS use may be found within the direct operations of the manufacturer.
In addition, CAD systems have broadened the reach of corporations, allowing them to harness talent from across the globe to provide input, and to design the specications of new products, 24-hours a day; work is passed on from locations retiring for the current work-day to locations beginning a new work-day. This idea is also known as the Followthe-Sun philosophy, and dramatically cuts down the overall time required to design a new car. In General Motors case, the manufacturer managed to achieve a stunning saving in design time for the companys Electric Volt vehicle from 36 months, down to 29 months, which sharpened the companys competitive edge (McCafferty 2011). The process improvements, and greater participation of personnel enabled by information systems help to make design and manufacturing process smoother, and cut the design to production time for new products down, enabling companies to iterate more new products in the same time period as compared to design processes without such systems.
MacDufe 2001).
Chapter 4
Challenges to IS
While Information Systems (IS) use has been benecial to automobile companies, the proper implementation of such systems is important in order to reap the most benet. A key consideration would be the potential fragmentation of systems, an undesirable situation where different departments utilise a non-uniform platform within a companys deployment, as well as incompatible data formats with supplier systems.
Chapter 5
Conclusion
In this paper, we have explored the application of Information Systems, and its impact in automobile manufacturers core business functions. It is evident that augmenting such systems in their operations have given the manufacturers improved efciency, savings and exibility within their business functions. Furthermore, the arrival of new technologies enable these manufacturers to consistently innovate new business models, and create new avenues for them to interact with their customers. From a marketing perspective, incorporating custom information systems in the manufacturers products create a distinct branding for companies, and is a main source of competitive edge for them. We also note the substantial savings achieved from singular applications of Information Systems. Stand-alone systems such as Camis JIT inventory handling system presents a huge reduction in inefciencies. Thus, we estimate that an extension of such stand-alone systems to encompass more of the manufacturers operations would reap higher savings and efciency improvements. However, an important key in realising such efciency is to maintain an expansion of a standardised system that may be used uniformly throughout the enterprises operations.
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Bibliography
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