Valérie Botta-Genoulaz

Survey paper: A survey on the recent research literature on ERP systems

The research literature on ERP systems has exponentially grown in recent years. In a domain, where new concepts and techniques are constantly introduced, it is therefore, of interest to analyze the recent trends of this literature, which is only partially included in the research papers published. Therefore, we have chosen to primarily analyze the literature of the last 2 years (2003 and 2004), on the basis of a classification according to six categories: implementation of ERP; optimisation of ERP; management through ERP; the ERP software; ERP for supply chain management; case studies. This survey confirms that the research on ERP systems is still a growing field, but has reached some maturity. Different research communities address this area from various points of view. Among the research axes that are now active, we can, especially, notice a growing interest on the post-implementation phase of the projects, on the customization of ERP systems, on the sociological aspects of the implementation, on the interoperability of the ERP with other systems and on the return on investment of the implementations.

A classification for better use of ERP systems

Companies have invested considerable resources in the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The results initially expected have rarely been reached. The optimisation (or efficient use) of such information systems is nowadays becoming a major factor for firms striving to reach their performance objectives. After presenting a synthesis of several studies on ERP projects, we build on the findings of a French investigation into the assessment and optimisation of ERP performance. A classification of company positions regarding their ERP use, based on both software maturity and strategic deployment directions, and an improvement process are proposed. Industrial cases allow validation of this approach.

The SCOR model for the alignment of business processes and information systems

The alignment of business processes and information systems is a critical factor for both business process management (BPM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system efficiency. Analysing existing approaches of alignment shows the need for an independent reference model to support the mapping between organisational and informational views. The SCOR model represents a strong management tool to evaluate, control, measure and improve existing supply chain process structures, based on a business process view of supply chain highlighting the functional requirements of best practices identified. We have critically analysed the contribution of the current SCOR model to the alignment of business processes and information systems. As the alignment is currently only based on the functional realisation of best practices, we show that this alignment risks neglecting important process dependencies. An extended reference model is then proposed, including the structuring of information exchanged between processes. That results in a more complete process map highlighting all physical and informational dependencies, in a multi-view of ‘business process mapping’ including the informational dimension, and thus a more precise alignment of ERP systems with processes.

An ontological approach for strategic alignment: a supply chain operations reference case study

Firms cannot be competitive if their business and information technology strategies are not aligned. Yet achieving strategic alignment continues to be a major concern for business executives. A number of alignment models have been proposed in the literature. Enterprise modelling (EM) can deliver models that are understandable by all participants and formalised enough to map the Enterprise Engineering and Reengineering activities directly onto the business process execution. However, models need terms (names, verbs, etc.) to identify and describe the constructs modelled in the EM language used. To share business knowledge, a common modelling language is not sufficient. A common business language is required to share the understanding of any constructs used in the modelling language at a semantic level. The aim of this article is to present the importance of knowledge formalisation for strategic alignment. Our work is based on knowledge contained in a well-known reference model for supply chain: Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. To analyse this knowledge, we transform this model into ontology. Finally, we will explore the respective advantages of the different representations of SCOR model (original text, using a business modelling language, ontology), and more generally, the contribution of ontologies as they are becoming a major issue in business modelling.

Editorial: Special issue on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems

In recent years, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have progressively become the reference solution for companies’ information systems, whatever their activity, the world over. The main reason of this success is their capacity to address the information needs of all departments and functions across a company onto a single unified computer system. This ‘‘ERP movement’’ was initially motivated by the combination of their ability to meet various companies’ requirements both on technical and organisational point of view. Often listed among these requirements is the difficulty of evolution of legacy systems with regards to the Y2K threshold or euro-compliancy in Europe; the interest of a unique system in comparison with non-homogeneous software packages; the necessity to efficiently gather, store, process and dispatch information within the entire company; or the needs of financial consolidation. In the meantime, new information technology opportunities appeared: generalisation of networks, increased power of computers and data bases, etc., which made possible the design of comprehensive information systems. After over a decade of applications, it is still clear that ERP implementation and use lead not only to technical problems but also to organizational, social and economical issues, which may have a critical influence on the future of companies if not properly addressed. Even if these difficulties have been considered for a long time in the research literature, it is interesting to notice the difficulties of this literature to achieve a real prospective work, in an area where firms and ERP vendors have their own, and often quicker dynamics. With regards to this difficulty,

The role of APS systems in Supply Chain Management: a theoretical and industrial analysis

Companies are engaged in developing integrated and worldwide information system. Therefore, ERP have been largely introduced and more recently, APS emerge for the supply chain planning function. This paper presents an analysis of the contribution of APS to Supply Chain Management. Do APS cover the whole supply chain and enable the integration of its activities? Are companies mature enough to exploit both vertical and horizontal integration? Based on academic works and industrial interviews, our findings reveal a good integration of supply chain activities, even if we notice a relatively partial use of APS, mainly for the upstream supply chain.

A business repository enrichment process: A case study for manufacturing execution systems

Abstract A key characteristic of the software applications supporting manufacturing business processes is their heterogeneity. This is due not only to differences in their development and deployment, but also to the variety of processes and actors in complex organizations. Heterogeneity at the semantic level is one of the major problems in any process of interoperability and/or integration. There is therefore a need for developing new approaches and methods to ensure interoperability between different software solutions. In the context of a case study with a consortium of MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) publishers, we propose a semantic alignment process of repositories used in the construction of a MES solution called “MES On Demand”, using multiple applications and driven by business processes. Through the study of semantic heterogeneities, we use an enrichment-based alignment for business repositories applied to ISO/IEC 62264. Finally, we evaluate the contribution of this approach to enterprise maturity in the application of standards and reference models, using Nascio’s Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model. This proposal, which is useful for practitioners and experts, is a contribution to academic study on semantic alignment for master interoperability.

Pooled warehouse management

Understanding the management of pooled warehouses via the multiple case study approach.Developing the main specificities of pooled warehouse management.Presenting new performance indicators in the monitoring of pooled warehouses.Identifying uncertainty and defining risk in the context of pooled warehouses. Today, pooled warehouse presents a major issue for supply chain actors. Managing such structures establishes a more complex and little known actions system. In this paper, we provide the main specificities of a pooled warehouse examined from the perspectives of both a literature review and an exploratory qualitative study built on seven cases in France. This study is based on semi-structured interviews with 22 companies managing projects in the field of pooled warehouses. From this qualitative analysis, we distinguish the main characteristics of pooled warehouses, such as compatibility and partner maturity, shared Vendor Managed Inventory, and collaborative management. In addition, we identify new key performance indicators, uncertainty sources and risks of pooled warehouses. This work helps define pooled warehouse concept and brings practitioners a better understanding of how it can be managed. Furthermore, it allows researchers to develop new models of optimization considering the pooling context.

Normalisation in life-cycle assessment: consequences of new European factors on decision-making

ABSTRACT Environmental performance assessment of products is necessary to improve sustainability in supply chains. Life-cycle assessment and its optional normalisation step may be used for this purpose. Based on an illustration, this paper studies the most recent International reference Life-Cycle Data system (ILCD) normalisation factors and compares them with the most commonly used normalisation factors given by CML and ReCiPe H methods. Normalisation with ILCD shows differences in the results, compared to normalisation with older methods, which may have consequences on business decisions. Indeed, some impact categories are undervalued with old methods because their factors are not up to date. We conclude on the importance of using the latest methods to assess environmental impacts, and on the need to link these approaches or metrics with supply-chain performance evaluation models.

A Multi-Objective Mathematical Model for Green Supply Chain Reorganization

This study considers a green supply chain design (GrSC) with environmental concerns. We develop a multi-objective mathematical mode for hub location allocation problem that captures the trade-off between our objectives. The first objective is related to the total cost: transportation & inventory cost and the second one is related to the environment impact, such as CO 2 emission. The strategic decisions considered in the proposed model define which warehouses should be selected as a distribution center (hub) and what transportation mode and organization which number of vehicles are required to move products in each period among suppliers, distribution center and warehouses. a new resolution process is proposed and meta-heuristic approach is applied to obtain Pareto frontier.