Information Plan For Celerity Enterprises, Inc: A Teaching Case

The Information Plan for Celerity Enterprises, Inc.: A Teaching Case Laurie Schatzberg Idea Group Publishing IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING Information Plan for Celerity Enterprises, Inc. IGP 1331 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 17033-1117, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com #IT5513 1 g n i h s i l b u P p u o r G a e d I t h g i r y p o C g n i h s i l b u P p u o r G a e d I t h g i r y Cop EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Celerity Enterprises competes in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. At the start of the case, business conditions are favorable for them g n i h to launch a new production facility to manufacture flash memory. The new s ligoals. A b facility must achieve exceptionally ambitious productivity and cost u P to substitute facility-level strategic planning process reveals opportunities p u information for other more-expensive resources. By the end of the case, just o r G a few months later, worldwide economic conditions change radically and the a e d future of the new facility is in jeopardy. Iparticipants, the planning process and findings. t h The case describes the g ri It providesp ay rich setting to discuss aligning information and business orealities of the volatile industry, outsourcing for IS planning planning, C leadership, and using a combination of top-down and bottom-up planning. ing h s i l b u BACKGROUND P up o r G The Case a e This case seeks to address of information planning in a dthe dynamics I t h highly volatile manufacturing industry. To portray the dynamics with realg i r ism, the case also yhighlights: (1) the need for a firm to align its information p o C The Information Plan for Celerity Enterprises, Inc.: A Teaching Case Laurie Schatzberg, University of New Mexico, USA Laurie Schatzberg, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at University of New Mexico’s Anderson Schools of Management in Albuquerque. Prior to joining the faculty in 1991, Dr. Schatzberg earned the Ph.D. degree from Rensselaer where she had also been a project manager at Rensselaer’s Center for Manufacturing Productivity and Technology Transfer. Dr. Schatzberg has published numerous articles concerning manufacturing and information systems. These articles appear in DataBase, Production and Operations Management, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man & Cyernetics, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, and Informing Sciences Journal, and elsewhere. Such corporations as ALCOA, Digital, GM, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, and UTC have sponsored her work. Dr. Schatzberg is the Secretary/Treasurer of ACM SIGMIS and a Department Editor for DataBase. Copyright © 2000, Idea Group Publishing. Copying without written permission of Idea Group Publishing is prohibited. #IT5513 2 Schatzberg strategy with its overall business strategy, and (2) the need to engage in a planning process such that employees participate and embrace it, and ultimately own the resulting transformation. Information planning is, itself, a part of an information system development cycle. That development cycle is a major component of the organization’s own life cycle. Finally, the organization itself is a player within its industry. Industry dynamics and worldwide economics play a major role in influencing the direction of an organization, and its IS planning in turn. As readers analyze this case, it will be useful to keep in mind this interdependence among the IS planning process, the culture of the organization, and the dynamics of that organization within the industry. g n i h s i l b u P p u o r G a e d I t h g i r y Cop g n i h Celerity Enterprises s i l b Celerity Enterprises competes in the semiconductoru manufacturing P industry and is based in the USA. Like many such companies, it was formed p u o in the 1960s by a dynamic team of