Reference no: EM132712240

Case Study

The automobile plant of DaimlerChrysler in Germany, has 13,000 employees and produces more than 800 cars per day. Each day, 70 rail cars and 500 trucks transport parts, components and materials to the factory, which occupies an area of about 1 million square meters. This plant uses a just-in-time delivery system: all the parts and components must be delivered to the plant's various assembly stations just at the moment when they are needed. Nearly 20 year ago , Daimler management realized that the intraplant transport capacity was not utilized efficiently because there was no way to manage plant deliveries effectively. Once arriving at the plant, drivers moved their trucks to their leading points not knowing if they would arrive there in the right order or if the loading would be free. The trucks were not always able to deliver the required material during the agreed timeframe. Material on the trucks might arrive too soon, or urgently needed material might not be available because the truck was waiting in line. Daimler needed a better way to make decisions about organizing its in-plant deliveries. The company decided to use the Transportation Efficiency Support System (TESYS) to solve this problem. TESYS is a decision-support and optimization software system which synchronizes deliveries with the capacities of loading points within the area of a plant and with the current needs of production. When a delivery arrives at the Daimler?s plan, requests for unloading are submitted to the plant control board using either an automated order reception model or the telephone. The system optimizes the assignment, showing the shortest and quickest routes. New delivery instructions are transmitted to the appropriate driver using two way radio.

(a) Explain the role played by the Daimler's TESYS in decision making?

(b) Distinguish between Management Information System (MIS) and Decision Support System (DSS) such as the one used by DaimlerChrysler.

(c) Distinguish and explain the difference between „model-driven DSS? and „data-driven DSS?.

(d) What would be the relevance of the TESSYS in the Daimler?s Executive Support System in that organization.

(e) What major factors contributed to the success of the implementation of Daimler?S TESYS Decision Support system?

(f) Information systems (IS) have always been regarded as enablers for organizational transformation in ways that systems help in jobs automation, information processing and provide useful input for decision making. Discuss this statement in reference to decision making process in an organization such as Daimler's.

(h) What is active participation of senior management in design of information systems important for Daimler.