Executive Information Systems An Executive Information System (EIS) is a type of management information system intended to facilitate and support

the information and decision-making needs of senior executives by providing easy access to both internal and external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. It is commonly considered as a specialized form of a Decision Support System (DSS).

An Executive Information System (EIS) is a type of management information system intended to facilitate and support the information and decision-making needs of senior executives by providing easy access to both internal and external information relevant to meeting the strategic goals of the organization. It is commonly considered as a specialized form of a Decision Support System (DSS)[1] The emphasis of EIS is on graphical displays and easy-to-use user interfaces. They offer strong reporting and drill-down capabilities. In general, EIS are enterprise-wide DSS that help top-level executives analyze, compare, and highlight trends in important variables so that they can monitor performance and identify opportunities and problems. EIS and data warehousing technologies are converging in the marketplace

Decision Support Systems Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific class of computerized information systems that supports business and organizational decision-making activities. A properly-designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions Management Information Systems MIS refers broadly to a computer-based system that provides managers with the tools for organizing, evaluating and efficiently running their departments. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, an MIS can include software that helps in decision making, data resources such as databases, the hardwareresources of a system, decision support systems, people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently.

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, CRM, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the [1] connections to outside stakeholders. Short for enterprise resource planning, a business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. As the ERP methodology has become more popular,software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP in business activities such as inventory control, order tracking, customer service, finance and human resources.

Transaction Processing Systems

A type of computer processing in which the computer responds immediately to user requests. Each request is considered to be a transaction. Automatic teller machines for banks are an example of transaction processing. The opposite of transaction processing is batch processing, in which a batch of requests is stored and then executed all at one time. Transaction processing requires interaction with a user, whereas batch processing can take place without a user being present.

Lean is the set of 'tools' that assist in the identification and steady elimination of waste (muda), the improvement of quality, and production time and cost reduction. Below is a picture and links to some of the common Lean Tools

Five principles of lean:

Principle 1: Accurately specify the value from the customer's perspective for both products and services.

Principle 2: Identify the value stream for products and services and remove any non-value-added waste along the value stream.

Principle 3: Make the product and services flow without interruption across the value stream.

Principle 4: Authorize production of products and services based on the pull from the customer.

Principle 5: Strive for perfection by constantly removing layers of wast

Categories Of Cost Of Quality

1-Internal Failure Costs.

The costs of deficiencies discovered before delivery. We associate deficiencies or nonconformities with the failure to meet explicit requirements or implicit needs of external or internal customers.

2-External Failure Costs.

The costs associated with deficiencies found after product is received by the customer. These also include lost opportunities for sales revenue. External Costs Classifications

Warranty charges: The costs involved in replacing or making repairs to products that are still within the warranty period.

Complaint adjustment: The costs of investigation and adjustment of justified complaints from the defective product or installation.

Returned material: The dollars associated with the receipt and replacement of defective product received from the field.

Allowances: The costs of concessions made to customers due to substandard products accepted by the customer. Customer chose to use the product as is.

Penalties due to poor quality: This can apply to goods or services delivered late or too early.

Rework on support operations: Correcting errors on billing and other external processes.

Revenue losses in support operations: An example is the failure to collect receivables from some customers.

Lost Opportunities for sales revenue: Profit margin on current revenue lost due to customers who switch for reasons of quality. This includes canceled contracts due to poor quality. Also includes lost of new customers:

3-Appraisal Costs.

The costs incurred to determine the degree of conformance to quality requirements. For example inspection costs is an appraisal cost. Appraisal Costs are quality cost that determes the quality of a product. These costs are normally associated with inspection. This includes inspection on receipt, inspection at the source, or by surveillance:

Examples include

-Incoming inspection and test:

-In-process inspection and test:

-In-process evaluation of conformance to requirements.

-Final inspection and test:

4-Prevention Costs.

The costs incurred to keep failure and appraisal costs to a minimum. For example product design or Poke Yoke costs are prevention costs.
Prevention costs are one of the four elements of cost of quality. When implement and tracking a cost of quality system within a company, management typically focuses on internal and external failure costs. Management studies the costs due to defects and not the cost to prevent the defects. Costs of prevention focuses on the actions taken to prevent the creation of defects. Companies that pursue operation excellence track these costs and purposely alllocate money to this element. These companies spend more on prevention methods than the other quality cost elements. Here are examples of these costs:

Quality planning:

This includes the broad array of activities which collectively create the overall quality plan and the numerous specialized plans. It includes also the preparation of procedures needed to communicate

these plans to all concerned.

New-products review:

This inlcudes design review, reliability engineering, risk assessment, FMEA, Design of Experiements and other quality-related activities associated with the launching of new design.

Process planning:

Process capability studies, inspection planning, and other activities associated with the manufacturing and service processes.

Process control:

In-process inspection and test to determine the status of the process (rather than for product acceptance). This includes SPC, Anova Studies and guardbanding.

Quality audits:

Evaluating the execution of activities in the overall quality plan. Read more on Quality Audits here.

Supplier quality evaluation:

Evaluating supplier quality activities prior to supplier selection, and auditing the activities during the contract

Training:

Preparing and conducting quality-related training programs. Conducting training on company procedures, specification and inspection activities

The total cost of quality is the sum of the four above categorie

Functional benchmarking - a company will focus its benchmarking on a single function in order to improve the operation of that particular function Competitive benchmarking is where we wish to discover what our companys performance is compared with an immediate competitor. This can be across the entire spectrum of business comparitors, i.e., finance, products and services, organisation, technology, research and development, personnel policies, Strategic Benchmarking is used to improve overall performance by examining the long-term strategies and approaches that have enabled great performers to succeed. It involves considering core competencies, developing new products and services; changing the balance of activities; and improving capabilities for dealing with changes in the background environment

Internal benchmarking is a method of comparing one operating unit or function within the same industry or the organization itself.