Using spreadsheets in production planning in a pharmaceutical company

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementLiving in the technological era, a successful company nowadays is the company that integrates Information Technology (IT) with its business. Otherwise, it might face a huge risk of not being able to survive in today’s market against the huge competition that is highly influenced by IT. However, integrating IT with business is not so simple due to several factors, namely: the available resources, choosing the right solution, top management support, time constraints, and finally achieving the proper user training and adoption. It is obviously not so wise to keep on waiting until all these obstacles are solved when there is a possibility of using some of the available resources such as Microsoft Office tools that might ease several processes of the business until the needed system is implemented and used. In a supply chain, as a supplier or a manufacturer, production usually follows a production plan that is typically created by the supply planning department. A production plan relies on a demand forecast, whereas a demand forecast usually relies on historical data, but the market demand changes and a forecast does not always match the demand, so whenever there is a change in the forecast, production plans are updated accordingly (Graves, 2011). Therefore, if we are looking to optimize the supply chain, it is necessary to build a strong relationship between the supply chain partners because their collaboration becomes vital in such a scenario. This collaboration means that the partners of the supply chain must share their information with each other (Groznik & Maslaric, 2012). Such information can be about the inventory stock levels of the customer towards the supplier which helps in optimizing the Reorder Level that is defined as “the point at which the company will reorder stock” (Meng, 2006), resulting in creating more successful production plans that matches the market demand. However, these processes can hardly be done and managed manually, theyactually require the help of an IT system that is integrated with the supply chain for achieving the expected results. Aligning IT with the supply chain and using e-business to manage the relationship between suppliers and customers can lower costs, this is due to the fact that IT can contribute in supporting the collaboration and coordination through an easy way of information sharing between the partners of the supply chain (Auramo, Kauremaa, & Tanskanen, 2005). Moreover, using IT in a supply chain does not necessarily need to be costly or difficult to use; insteadspreadsheets for instance can be used for Inventory Planning that is defined as “figuring out what your inventory should be (not counting what you have)” (Estep, 2012). Even though using spreadsheet tools such as Microsoft Office tools does not require purchasing an IT system, it is still considered a type of integrating IT with a business process that can significantly improve the supply chain

Factors Contributing to Business Process Reengineering Implementation Success

Organizational leaders continue to use business process reengineering (BPR) as a process improvement methodology even though BPR implementations have had low success rates. To increase BPR success rates, organizational leaders must understand what specific factors contribute to successful BPR implementations. Grounded in Lewin\u27s field theory, the purpose of this nonexperimental, cross-sectional study was to examine the impact of gender and education on BPR. Data collection consisted of nonprobability convenience sample of 122 members from the professional networking website LinkedIn and the professional organizational website American Society for Quality. Data were gathered from a 6-point Likert-type scale survey instrument based on Hammer and Stanton\u27s pre-identified BPR failure factors. The MANOVA results indicated no significant gender, education, or gender and education interaction effect on a linear combination of perception of BPR success factors, F (33.00, 318.00) = .591, p \u3e 0.05, partial eta squared =.058. The results of this study might contribute to social change by helping organizational leaders understand factors that do not appear to be related to successful BPR implementations. The elimination of these factors could allow organizational leaders to focus on other factors for successful BPR implementations. Successful BPR implementations might lead to increased organizational profits, which could allow organizational leaders more opportunity and increase corporate social responsibility, all of which may directly affect the quality of life in a community

Propuesta de un proceso básico de Gestión Logística basado en un modelo de integración logística y la utilización de las herramientas de gestión por procesos para que una asociación de MYPES textiles de fibra de alpaca en la ciudad de Puno pueda atender pedidos de gran volumen

En el Perú, el 95% de las empresas son MYPES, las cuales son las más importantes impulsadoras del enriquecimiento económico del Perú pues aportan el 40% del Producto Bruto Interno (PBI). Sin embargo, existen factores que afectan directamente a su productividad, lo cual genera una baja competencia por lo que existe una gran mortalidad de empresas en el país. Algunos factores que no dejan que las empresas tengan la potestad de crecer con éxito y así librarse su aniquilación, se encuentran los factores operativos, en específico, la gestión logística. En el Perú, la industria textil y de cuero es una de las actividades económicas de las microempresas manufactureras que posee el mayor porcentaje de participación, donde la fibra de alpaca es la que más destaca, y dentro de la ciudad de Puno se tiene la mayor cantidad de cabezas de alpaca a nivel mundial. En el presente trabajo de investigación se desarrolla en base al estudio realizado dentro de las MYPES textiles en Puno acerca de la fibra de alpaca, y la realización de un planteamiento de un proceso básico de Gestión Logística por medio de una de las herramientas de la gestión de procesos y del modelo integrado de Gestión Logística para estandarizar el proceso y así tener productos uniformes. Todo esto con la finalidad de lograr un comportamiento asociativo entre las MYPES y puedan cumplir con una mayor demanda en los pedidos.In Peru, 95% of the companies are MYPES, which are the most important promoters of the economic enrichment of Peru since they contribute 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, there are factors that directly affect their productivity, which generates low competition for which there is a high mortality of companies in the country. Some factors that do not let companies have the power to grow successfully and thus escape their annihilation, are operational factors, specifically, logistics management. In Peru, the textile and leather industry is one of the economic activities of the manufacturing microenterprises that has the highest percentage of participation, where alpaca fiber is the one that stands out the most, and within the city of Puno there is the largest number of alpaca heads worldwide. This research work is developed based on the study carried out within the textile MYPES in Puno about the alpaca fiber, and the realization of an approach to a basic process of Logistics Management through one of the management tools of processes and the integrated model of Logistics Management to standardize the process and thus have uniform products. All this in order to achieve an associative behavior between the MYPES and can meet a greater demand in the orders.Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesiona