Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale ERP Implementation
Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale ERP Implementation
February 2012
Summary Bombardier’s Background
Bombardier started in the year 1942 and went on to become a key player in the transportation industry. It entered the market of rail transportation in 1974 and 8 years later its desire to diversify led it to enter the Aerospace Industry. By January 31, 2007 Bombardier Transportation posted revenues of $ 6.6 Billion of which 55% came from Aerospace division.
The Aerospace division has headquarters in Montreal and is the 3rd largest designer and manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the world. Bombardier Aerospace believed that regional jet is necessary to compete with the range of 1000 seat planes that its nearest rival Embraer in introducing the market. The detrimental impact of 9/11, war in Iraq have led to reduction of passenger numbers for large carriers which gave Bombardier a firm position in the airline industry.
Business Problem
As the company grew over the years, Bombardier’s strategy of growth by acquisition turned the firm into a “textbook silo organization”. This created problems as systems did not communicate with each other effectively. This inefficiency generated additional costs because the firm had to maintain all the different systems.
Another problem, related to the operation of the aerospace division, was the low visibility of inventory and lack of integration between the old computer systems. This caused process delays, low inventory turns & price inconsistency from suppliers.
The Bombardier Manufacturing System (BMS), the group of information technology applications that had been supporting Bombardier Aerospace’s manufacturing activities, had not evolved to cope with the fast changes. The BMS capabilities had become limited.
We can assume that Bombardier was not a fully integrated company at that time because there was a clear lack of coordination and
February 2012
Summary Bombardier’s Background
Bombardier started in the year 1942 and went on to become a key player in the transportation industry. It entered the market of rail transportation in 1974 and 8 years later its desire to diversify led it to enter the Aerospace Industry. By January 31, 2007 Bombardier Transportation posted revenues of $ 6.6 Billion of which 55% came from Aerospace division.
The Aerospace division has headquarters in Montreal and is the 3rd largest designer and manufacturer of commercial aircraft in the world. Bombardier Aerospace believed that regional jet is necessary to compete with the range of 1000 seat planes that its nearest rival Embraer in introducing the market. The detrimental impact of 9/11, war in Iraq have led to reduction of passenger numbers for large carriers which gave Bombardier a firm position in the airline industry.
Business Problem
As the company grew over the years, Bombardier’s strategy of growth by acquisition turned the firm into a “textbook silo organization”. This created problems as systems did not communicate with each other effectively. This inefficiency generated additional costs because the firm had to maintain all the different systems.
Another problem, related to the operation of the aerospace division, was the low visibility of inventory and lack of integration between the old computer systems. This caused process delays, low inventory turns & price inconsistency from suppliers.
The Bombardier Manufacturing System (BMS), the group of information technology applications that had been supporting Bombardier Aerospace’s manufacturing activities, had not evolved to cope with the fast changes. The BMS capabilities had become limited.
We can assume that Bombardier was not a fully integrated company at that time because there was a clear lack of coordination and