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Analyzing a Business Information System Business Informatics Assignment

Submitted by: Ayush Mandawewala Section A- 11008

11 | P a g e

Company Briefing:
Unilever, British-Dutch multinational corporation that foods, owns many of the

world's consumer

product brands in

beverages, cleaning

agents and personal care products. Unilever is a dual-listed company consisting of Unilever N.V. in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Unilever PLC in London, United Kingdom. This arrangement is similar to those of Reed Elsevier and Royal Dutch Shell prior to their unified structures. Both Unilever companies have the same directors and effectively operate as a single business. The current non-executive Chairman of Unilever N.V. and PLC is Michael Treschow while Paul Polman is Group Chief Executive. Unilever's main international competitors include Nestl and Procter & Gamble.

Business Impact Summary:

Business: Domestos, Lux, Knorr, Hellmanns, and Flora are just some of the 400
home, personal care and food products manufactured by Unilever. In North America, the company, which operates in 100 countries around the globe, has two distinct divisions: Unilever Best foods and Unilever Home and Personal Care (HPC).

Challenge: To meet customer demand 150 million times a day, someone

somewhere is choosing a Unilever product the company must ensure a constant supply of its merchandise to retail outlets around the globe. In addition to ensuring efficient distribution, Unilever must also maintain excellent product quality standards.

Solution: The companys databases underpin a number of core business

processes from procurement to sales and distribution. To optimize the databases used by its North American divisions, Unilever deployed a CA Database Management solution that simplies routine administration tasks and minimizes downtime.

Result: By increasing database performance and utilization, Unilevers North

American divisions have been able to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency thereby helping to ensure supply chain continuity and quality manufacturing processes. An integration of SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems will bring considerable financial benefits for one world-renowned company, it has been suggested. Writing for Computerworld UK, Leo King noted Unilever - which makes products such as Dove soap - is facing a large SAP integration after buying TRESemme shampoo maker Alberto Culver.

The firm is standardising globally on its SAP ERP software and Alberto Culver began a similar SAP rollout two years ago. It claimed the acquisition will result in significant operational savings and help make the organisation the world's second largest shampoo manufacturer. Of its SAP implementation, the firm said its operational execution had been significantly improved and its process complexity dramatically cut. Western Europe has proven the most effective cost-cutting ground as a result, it added. SAP recently announced it will speed up its ERP implementations after it developed Rapid Development software to help

businesses set up their systems in as little as 12 weeks. Much of Unilevers monitoring and control of its business comes through the companys SAP ERP platform, which is now used globally. It is also in the midst of creating a global supply chain function with standardised processes,

which relies on networks created and maintained by BT. These systems appear set to be used widely as part of the sustainability efforts. Unilever, working with consultancy Accenture as part of the One Unilever efficiency overhaul, has been working on two major technology projects that will likely play an integral part in the sustainability drive. It had not provided exact detail at the time of writing. Under the first of the two plans, called Sirius, it has deployed a harmonised process model based around SAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver business intelligence. A second project, called Mountain, has seen Unilever form a standardised supply

chain model. It is expected to draw heavily on the business intelligence and ERP systems to produce annual sustainability reports. In an Accenture case study document, Unilevers supply chain company (USCC) chairman Peter Ernsting, said that without the new platform, USCC technically would not exist. The company now has a real time view of its supply chain, which will be crucial in controlling emissions and processes. Other key technology at Unilever includes Oracle databases and CA database management, where all the data is stored.

Business SCM Process

Unilever uses ERP for a all its business activities. Here we will discuss on the inputs, outputs, process, feedback of the entire supply chain management (SCM). The Input constitutes of where the company decides to purchase the various raw materials required for Manufacturing a economical price/unit not compromising quality. In Process, the data required by different departments for decision making is sectioned and send selectively to the designated authorities where the data is analyzed and decisions are taken, this is then made to an action plan in

softwares to manage the different operations timely in different shifts by working staff. Output, The entire production is completed and is packed, this is all digitally documented by inventory management. Which is then ready for sale and cleared by the Quality Control Department. This containers of Product is then channelized to various countries by the customer distribution centres through different modes of transportation according to the suitability. and the ERP system automatically stores all data of the stock in the Datawarehouse & the respective branches confirm the delivery of the ordered containers of stocks by tallying the total value of the stock send from the unit and stock received. This is then stored in the Local warehouse of the company which is then supplied to the distributors which spreads the various variants and products to the entire market from the retail stores to modern trade. # Unilevers products are generally sold through its sales force and through independent brokers, agents and distributors to chain, wholesale, co-operative and independent grocery accounts, food service distributors and institutions. Products are distributed through distribution centres, satellite warehouses, company operated and public storage facilities.

# Home and Personal Care in North America has also developed distribution centres for third-party manufacturers where products are collected to create heavier more efficient loads to resupply customer distribution centres. # Home & Personal Care business in Europe (HPCE) selects hauliers on cost, performance and environmental impact. Feedback, Unilever tries to rectify learning from their previous experiences and feedback to improve their efficiency.

Discussed below are the various types of information systems used within the business model of the Unilever group with their specific usage:# R&D System (LIMS): Used for formula development # Specifications Systems: Used for Packaging, Raw Material, Formula, Master BOM, Finished Products and Process Specifications # Manufacturing Planning Systems: Used for MRP, Production Orders, Purchase Orders, Standard Costs, RM/Pack/WIP Inventory, Financial Transactions, Material Masters and Production Reporting # Planning Systems: Used for Demand Planning (DP), Demand Req Planning (DRP), Constrained Prod Planning (CPP), VMI and Finite Scheduling # MFG Execution Systems (Various): Used for Finished Goods Production, Compounding/Batching, Quality/Lab Systems and Plant Maintainance Systems # Order to Cash Systems: Used for Order Entry/Management, Terms of Sale, Deduction Tracking, Stock Allocation and Invoicing

# Finished Goods Management Systems: Used for Shipping, FG Warehouse, Transportation, Finished Goods Production (PIN) and Traceability Supply Chain Strategies of Unilever N.V Unilevers logistics operations present perhaps the biggest opportunity to streamline its supply chain and boost the companys ability to achieve its lofty growth goals. The company is in the process of consolidating its nearly 30 warehouses down to five massive distribution centres capable of shipping customer orders within a days time. Much of that consolidation is a recognition that retailers are adopting zeroinventory policies, which require an optimal use of flow-through and cross docking in the warehouses. To increase asset utilization, lower inventories and improve service, Unilever adopted collaborative planning, forecasting and

replenishment (CPFR) relationships with some retail customers.

Post Implementing Management Information System (MIS) in UNILEVER To meet customer demand - 150 million times a day, the company must ensure a constant supply of its merchandise to retail outlets around the globe. In addition to ensuring efficient distribution, Unilever must also maintain excellent product quality standards. The companys databases underpin a number of core business processes - from procurement to sales and distribution. To optimize the databases used Unilever deployed a CA Database and Management minimizes solution that By simplifies routine database

administration

tasks

downtime.

increasing

performance and utilization, Unilever have been able to reduce operating costs and improve efficiency thereby ensure supply chain continuity and quality manufacturing processes. Maintaining a seamless supply chain and product quality With such a vast product portfolio, Unilever Best foods and Unilever HPC have a highly complex supply chain and production line.

To manage day-to-day activities, they depend on an extensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which is supported by a number of extremely large databases. The ERP system supports a range of core business processes, such as sales, distribution, procurement and finance. Unilever Best foods uses

approximately 500 gigabytes of disk space in its production environment, while the HPC division uses another 150 gigabytes. Both divisions also keep up to seven copies of this data for development and testing. This means Unilevers database administrators are locked in a constant balancing act to ensure the optimum performance of the ERP applications, while at the same time control the growth of the companys databases. Getting to grips with data To increase efficiency of data management across the business, Unilever deployed a CA Database Management solution to enable it to simplify routine administration tasks as well as increase application availability. Co-developing an industrialized implementation approach with the Unilever program management, the team successfully deployed the integrated solution to Unilevers marketing and sales organizations and 62 factories across 24 European countries. In total, approximately 17,000 users now have access to and use the SAP solution. SAP ERP The SAP ERP application supports the essential functions of your business processes and operations efficiently and are tailored to specific needs of your industry. SAP ERP, an application included in SAP Business Suite software, delivers these solutions: SAP ERP Financials SAP ERP Human Capital Management SAP ERP Operations

 For

SAP ERP Corporate Services current customers, SAP

enhancement

packages offers

the

benefit

of

improving and extending your SAP ERP software without the cost of major upgrades. For example, you can leverage SAP Master Data Governance delivered via an SAP enhancement package to help govern financial master data used in consolidation and operational chart of accounts. Tap into the interactive SAP ERP Community to keep up with the latest SAP ERP enhancements. SAP NETWEAVER SAP NetWeaver provides the technical foundation for SAP applications. It delivers a portfolio of enterprise technology that allows you to extend your applications to reach more people and to adopt new processes, devices, and consumption models. SAP NetWeaver helps you improve team productivity and business integration, enables you to simplify and manage your IT environment, and reduces operational costs so that IT resources are free to focus on business innovation. With the SAP NetWeaver technology platform, you can perform activities in the following areas:

Team Productivity
SAP NetWeaver supports a variety of user interfaces and collaboration tools. You can accommodate different work styles and roles for best user experience with:

SAP

NetWeaver

Portal to

provide

role-based

views

that

span

your

enterprise, enabling everyone to take full advantage of information resources

SAP NetWeaver Gateway to enable developers to create innovative, peoplecentric applications that link business users to SAP software

SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search to provide a simple and secure gateway

to enterprise information and processes.

Information Management

With SAP NetWeaver you can accelerate access to business information to improve decision making. You can deliver business information to the right people at the right time with:

SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management to support customer data

integration, global spend analysis, global data synchronization, product content management, mergers, and acquisitions

SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse to enable a scalable enterprise data

warehouse

SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator to accelerate the results

of queries or searches while lowering the cost of operations, even as data volumes and number of users increase

SAP Information Lifecycle Management to manage access, storage, and

retention of data from legacy SAP systems, while complying with legal and regulatory mandates

Business Process Management

With SAP NetWeaver, you can create and adapt business processes and business rules for higher levels of flexibility while reducing risks and costs. As an integral part of the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment, these business process management offerings enable a coherent development experience:

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management to model and execute

processes in order to achieve enhanced responsiveness to changing business needs and reduce cost of handling exceptions

SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management to create and maintain

business rules to ensure that processes conform to business policies

Composition

With SAP NetWeaver, you can use a model-driven composition environment to develop or update applications that support flexible business processes. You can also use SAP NetWeaver to monitor and manage business processes to improve process quality and efficiency. Compose or update applications to support flexible business processes with: SAP

NetWeaver Composition Environment to design, deploy, and run

applications SAP

NetWeaver Developer

Studio to

develop

J2EE-based,

multi-tiered

business applications SAP

NetWeaver

Visual

Composer to

compose

model-based

business

applications without manual coding

SOA Middleware
With SAP NetWeaver, your IT organization can make disparate applications and systems work together consistently to enable end-to-end business processes exchanging information and executing transactions smoothly, and operating as if they were a single system. Integrate and manage business processes that are enabled by SAP and non-SAP applications with: SAP NetWeaver Process Integration to connect applications and data sources to integrate processes

Foundation Management
With SAP NetWeaver, you can improve the operational efficiency of best-in-class business processes. In particular, you can use SAP NetWeaver to run

applications, such as the SAP Business Suite family of business applications and SAP-certified partner solutions, from a unified platform ensuring that mission-

critical business processes are highly available, reliable, scalable, and secure throughout the life cycle. Run critical business applications on a stable technical foundation with: SAP NetWeaver Application Server to deploy core business applications using the open and reliable infrastructure SAP NetWeaver Identity Management to manage user identity and access across the enterprise SAP Solution Manager to ensure that mission-critical business processes are highly available, scalable, and secure throughout their life cycle.