Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2006
Source Publication
Production and Operations Management
Abstract
This paper presents an empirical investigation into whether the implementation of packaged Enterprise Systems (ES) leads to parity in operational performance. Performance change and parity in operational performance are investigated in three geographically defined operating regions of a single firm. Order lead time, the elapsed time between receipt of an order and shipment to a customer, is used as a measure of operational performance. A single ES installation was deployed across all regions of the subject firm's operations.
Findings illustrate parity as an immediate consequence of ES deployment. However, differences in rates of performance improvement following deployment eventually result in significant (albeit smaller than pre-deployment) performance differences. An additional consequence of deployment seems to be an increased synchronization of performance across the formerly independent regions.
Comments
Post-print.
Production and Operations Management, Volume 15, No. 1 (Spring 2006).
The website of Production and Operations Management is available at: http://www.poms.org/journal/.