The effectiveness of MRP II to integrate enterprise systems : Effektiviteten av MRP II för att integrera företagssystem

Abstract: The Small and Medium-size Enterprises are the key bone of the economy of many nations. The usual definition of SME’s, make up 99.8% of the approximately 19 million enterprises of the European Union (ISO, 2002) and Sweden is not an exception. That is why SME’s faces the strategic challenge of achieving sustained profitable growth. To meet this challenge, SME’s must develop capabilities to integrate their systems. Since ICT gives so many advantages to support the Supply Chain, and MRPII software’s have become a very popular tool in the last thirty years; Our purpose is to answer the following research question: How can MRP II-type computer systems be used effectively to support the manufacturing and organizational integration? The research started with on-site observations and interviews but the development of a model and a survey was needed. After, we linked the research with an already accepted model. The results show how important the human aspect and the accuracy are in the effective usage of an MRP II. It also demonstrates that the MRP II philosophy must be accepted to use the MRP II software profitably. Nevertheless, we modeled the vicious cycle that our case company might deal with, tried to find the root cause and give recommendations to break it.