Enabling Technologies for the 21st Century

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Enabling Technologies for the 21st Century

• A brief discussion of new and emerging
  technologies in the modern business world.

Chris Glick MGMT 120
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Emerging technologies

• This presentation will discuss a few of the
  emerging technologies in the business world and
  provide examples about how they were successfully
  implemented.
• Some of the technologies are long established,
  and some are only recent innovations, but all
  have proved useful and are growing in use and
  effectiveness amongst todays leading
  corporations.

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RFID

• RFID radio frequency identification.
• RFID is the term used for the technologies that
  identify objects with radio waves.
• RFIDs are older than many people think, they have
  been in use since the 1970s.
• Keyless entry for cars is an example of an RFID.

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RFID

• Whats the big deal?
• In contrast to barcodes which are the typical
  means of tracking products today, RFIDs do not
  require a line of site, meaning if the package is
  dirty, damaged, or ripped the product will still
  be tracked.
• RFIDs also can identify unique products in
  contrast to barcodes which treat all of the same
  products as a group.

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RFID

• RFIDs can also store a wealth of information
  about the environment a product has been in.
• If a product is damaged during shipment, the
  RFIDs could conceivably store information
  relating to temperature, humidity or a number of
  weather related factors to help solve product
  defect problems

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RFID

• Many people wonder if this technology has been
  available for so long and is so beneficial, why
  is it just now taking off?
• The main reason for the delayed use of RFIDs has
  been cost.
• A typical RFID reader costs over and the actual
  tags that are placed on the products to be
  identified must be purchased in huge quantities
  to keep costs down.

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RFID

• With the help from large companies like Wal-Mart
  forcing their suppliers to use RFIDs these RFID
  products are being produced in great masses
  driving the costs down.
• Today, a single RFID tag can cost as little as 20
  cents.
• These low costs make it practical for companies
  to take advantage of RFIDs.

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RFID

• Club Car successfully implemented RFID technology
  into its golf cart assembly line.
• RFID is used in each step of the assembly line.
  All the components are tagged and verified
  before assembly onto the carts.
• They were able to cut production time on a single
  golf cart from 88 to 46 minutes and save millions
  of dollars a year in improved quality and
  directly attribute a 6.5 increase in capacity
  to RFIDs.

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ERP

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the process
  of pulling together all business processes into a
  single software program.
• The goal of ERP is to integrate all departments
  and functions across a company onto a single
  computer system that can serve the companys
  needs.

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ERP

• With all departments in the organizations
  integrated into a common software program, the
  facilitation of marketing, supply chain
  management, finance and accounting and any other
  aspect of the business is dramatically enhanced.
• Information is readily available to all employees
  in all departments.

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ERP

• A major problem facing large corporations is the
  sharing of information across departments.
• With an ERP system in place the sharing of
  information is simple, as all departments use the
  same program to store the information.

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ERP

• Hewlett-Packard successfully implemented an ERP
  application from PeopleSoft and noticed a 3
  million reduction in costsin its human resources
  department.
• In a single department HP was able to use an ERP
  application that enhanced communication and
  collaboration between 90,000 employees and in 8
  different languages.

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Point-of-sale

• Point-of-sale technologies refer to the emerging
  technologies used by corporations to gain insight
  into the actual sales of a company.
• For instance, the moment a sale is made, the
  supplier to the retailer will know it.
• The impact of this technology can be huge.

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Point-of-sale

• Point-of-sale technologies can help companies
  know the details of any sales.
• Some of the details in consideration for each
  sale include price, facings on the shelf,
  promotions, in and out of store competitors
  prices, and seasonal sales.
• Point-of-sale technologies have proved to be
  beneficial in the re-ordering of merchandise
  amongst retailers, giving them an exact count of
  products on the shelf.

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Point-of-sale

• Anheuser-Busch has been an innovative leader in
  point-of-sale technologies with its BudNet
  program.
• AB has its sales reps collect data at each point
  of sale on a regular basis, noting what its
  competitors are doing. Every time a sale is
  made, Anheuser knows the price paid, whether or
  not the beer was cold, shelf space held, and the
  prices at other points of sale around.

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Point-of-sale

• The details gained at the check-out help AB keep
  tabs on all the retail-level aspects of the beer
  industry.
• After sorting through the data, AB makes
  recommendations to the sales reps, who in turn
  rearrange displays and rotate stock based on
  those recommendations.
• Successful implementation of point-of-sale
  technologies has enabled AB to maintain its
  dominant market share in the beer industry.

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A case for concern

• Many companies may look at the successful
  implementation of these technologies and feel the
  urge to jump in without regard. A note of
  importance should be made, however, giving
  consideration into the actual benefits such
  technologies will have on their businesses. For
  most small businesses the use of RFIDs is simply
  too costly and unbeneficial with their limited
  resources, and using point-of-sale technologies
  may prove too costly at a single store level to
  reap large benefits. Any company considering the
  implementation of new technologies must
  accurately assess their current situation and do
  a cost/benefit analysis, only then should they
  make a decision on the implementation of new
  technologies.

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References

• www.rfidjournal.com
• http//www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/news-NG.as
  p?id51813
• http//www.msc-inc.net/ERP_Implementation.htm
• http//www.peoplesoft.com/media/en/pdf/success/hp_
  ss_0102.pdf
• http//www.identec.at/pdf/IDENTECSOLUTIONS_ClubCar
  _Mar04.pdf
• http//edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/25/bus2.
  feat.beer.network/index.html
• Operations Management Processes and Value
  Chains. 7th Edition.
• Information Technology for Management. 4th
  Edition.