Yet the implications of delay become ever more fraught as manufacturers contemplate the challenge of the new Millennium. At the top of the agenda is e-business with its implicit need for fast and infinitely flexible ways of working. Yet none can escape the impending revolution. Impossible demands, imperative needs From a business perspective, the two most highly publicised themes of current manufacturing management are the need to view markets on a world-wide basis, and the need for flexibility to respond to changing market requirements and shortened product life cycles. The enormous growth of mergers and acquisitions, whilst aspiring to provide a broader business base, has also introduced further diversity and consequent complexity, in terms of integration and IT service provision.
Integration is a massive challenge facing companies today.
It is a precursor to real-time business and, ultimately, corporate survival. But information and systems are fragmented to an extent that perpetuates duplication, discrepancy, and disunity within the organisation. Enter ERP solutions, offering everything in a single box. For example, the phenomenal take-up of the Internet has seen organisations rush to establish a Web presence and implement new technologies. However, most of these solutions merely exist as Internet islands of information, just as remote and unconnected as those systems historically developed to specifically meet only departmental needs.