Verified Document

Internal Controls And ERP Systems Research Paper

Implicit in the use of these internal controls is keeping strategic plans and initiatives on track. This focus on continual alignment of strategies to their objectives through the use of internal controls is what separates those organizations attaining success with their supply chains or not. One of the more successful organizations globally in orchestrating their supply chains through the use of internal ERP controls is PC and laptop manufacturer Lenovo (Barrett, et.al.). According to studies of their supply chain completed by AMR Research, Lenovo has been able to attain a 37% reduction in supply chain costs over three years (Barrett, et.al.). In addition Lenovo has been able to stay profitable while experiencing 42% growth during the 4th quarter of 2009, a time when many of its competitors were facing financial losses. Compare their growth to the overall market growth of 17% and the value of supply chain-based internal controls becomes clear. Experiencing this high rate of growth Lenovo also attained the highest customer satisfaction ratings in their segment of the market. All of these accomplishments occurred due to the tight integration of their supply chain, manufacturing operations and heavy reliance within Lenovo on internal controls from their global ERP system (Barrett, et.al.).

Contrast this success with the failures in China surrounding production and quality assurance management (Enderwick, et.al.). The lack of knowledge transfer within Mattel for example is a case in point, where no ERP system was used to unify quality management, manufacturing quality standards and worst of all, minimum acceptable quality levels for paint and components (Bapuji, Beamish, et.al.). The lack of internal controls as defined by key performance indicators or metrics on Balanced Scorecards (BSC) within Mattel and for that matter with many of the manufactures outsourcing segments of their operations to China (Enderwick, et.al.) led to a disaster of credibility and quality for manufacturing outsourced operations in this nation.

Conclusion

There are measurable and significant financial results attainable through the use of internal controls to manage supply chains when they are captured, analyzed and reported by ERPO systems. The intent of this analysis has been to show how the hierarchy of supply chain metrics, when tracked and analyzed...

The example of how Lenovo has been able to increase their market share even in the midst of a recession, attain the highest customer satisfaction ratings in their chosen markets, while staying profitable provides evidence of how internal controls that are supply chain focused are paying off. ERP systems are in the midst of a major transition right now, away from being systems of record to being catalysts or hubs of data intelligence and information. The use of ERP systems as a catalyst of strategy is now occurring much more often as a result.
References

Hari Bapuji, and Paul W. Beamish. "Mattel and the Toy Recalls (A). " Richard Ivey School of Business Case Collection: 9B08M010: Mattel and the Toy Recalls (A) 21 December 2009

Barrett, Jane . " Lenovo: The Journey of a Supply Chain Leader ." AMR Research . AMR Research, 12 March 2010. Web. 8 Apr 2010. .

Barrett, J.. "Demand-Driven is an Operational Strategy. " Industrial Management 1 Nov. 2007

Bhagwat, R., and M. Sharma. "Performance measurement of supply chain management using the analytical hierarchy process. " Production Planning & Control 18.8 (2007): 666.

Peter Enderwick. "Avoiding quality fade in Chinese global supply chains: Designing appropriate governance structures. " Business Process Management Journal 15.6 (2009): 876..

Helena Forslund. "ERP systems' capabilities for supply chain performance management. " Industrial Management + Data Systems 110.3 (2010): 351.

Meade, D., S. Kumar, and B. White. "Analysing the impact of the implementation of lean manufacturing strategies on profitability. " The Journal of the Operational Research Society 61.5 (2010): 858-871.

Su, Y., and C. Yang. "Why are enterprise resource planning systems indispensable to supply chain management? " European Journal of Operational Research 203.1 (2010): 81.

Charles A. Watts, Vincent A. Mabert, and Nathan Hartman. "Supply chain bolt-ons: investment and usage by manufacturers. " International Journal of Operations & Production Management 28.12 (2008): 1219.

Chyan Yang, and Yi-fen Su. "The relationship between benefits of ERP systems implementation and its impacts on firm performance of…

Sources used in this document:
References

Hari Bapuji, and Paul W. Beamish. "Mattel and the Toy Recalls (A). " Richard Ivey School of Business Case Collection: 9B08M010: Mattel and the Toy Recalls (A) 21 December 2009

Barrett, Jane . " Lenovo: The Journey of a Supply Chain Leader ." AMR Research . AMR Research, 12 March 2010. Web. 8 Apr 2010. .

Barrett, J.. "Demand-Driven is an Operational Strategy. " Industrial Management 1 Nov. 2007

Bhagwat, R., and M. Sharma. "Performance measurement of supply chain management using the analytical hierarchy process. " Production Planning & Control 18.8 (2007): 666.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

ERP Systems Bibliography Bendoly, E.,
Words: 2900 Length: 10 Document Type: Annotated Bibliography

Ge, L., & Voss, S.. (2009). ERP application in China: An overview. International Journal of Production Economics, 122(1), 501. Of the many challenges of planning, implementing and using ERP systems in China, the two greatest unmet needs of these systems on a consistent basis is business intelligence and data analytics. This analysis evaluates these two unmet needs from the standpoint of their use in supply chains. Included in the analysis is

ERP Systems Best Practices in
Words: 2692 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Recommendations The first step in attaining best practices in ERP system performance begins not with technology or system integration at an enterprise scale, but with a re-orientation to the key processes that need to be automated to make selling strategies more effective (Chtioui, 2009). In fact best practices in ERP systems performance is more attuned to aligning ERP systems to the key strategic plans and initiatives of an organization first, then

ERP Systems Challenges of Enterprise
Words: 22297 Length: 81 Document Type: Dissertation

Role-based ERP systems are critical for the siloed, highly inefficient architectures of legacy ERP systems to be made more relevant, contribute greater financial performance, and lead to higher levels of overall customer satisfaction. c. Purpose of the study The purpose the study is evaluate how enterprises who adopt role-based ERP system implementations are able to attain higher levels of financial and operations-based performance vs. those that rely on silo-based, more functionally

ERP Systems Challenges of Enterprise
Words: 1476 Length: 5 Document Type: Research Proposal

role-based will serve as the basis of the hypothesis testing and further phases of subsequent research. Second, the effects of role-based data, information and intelligence on an organizations' propensity to generate greater levels of collaboration through trust will be measured through attitudinal surveys of directors and vice presidents in the sampled companies. These surveys will seek to determine if the use of role-based data made the collaboration process more or

ERP Systems for Accounting ERP Refers to
Words: 1855 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

ERP systems for accounting ERP refers to enterprise resource planning which is a software package that supports all of a business's operations and day-to-day accounting processes. The ERP system of accounting provides an integrated system for an entire business organization by relating and coordinating the basic organizational functions such as financial planning, marketing of goods and services and human resource management. Many business organizations in the world today, both for

Internal Control
Words: 2004 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Discrepancies This case study is indeed correct in asserting that properly run inventories truly are essential to the functioning of any organization. Inventory discrepancies need to be eliminated aggressively in order for an organization to move forward. Furthermore, this case study was astute to assert that such discrepancies could be avoided by examining past mistakes and working hard to fix them. Furthermore, the cases study was also wise to point

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now