Innovation of NIBCO VMI Program
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Question 1
One notable innovation of NIBCO is the vendor-managed inventory program, designed for its large wholesalers. To come up with this system so fast, NIBCO used much transaction data across many SKUs per customer. Such an undertaking requires a robust enterprise system. A wholesaler whose supervisor challenged copper suppliers became a major VMI customer. Good proposals were written, which acted as further catalysts to the initiative (Kantor & Michael, 2011).
The person in charge of information systems at NIBCO was quite efficient, and when the company captured the contrast, there was no further delay. A manual process first came into place, but this was to be followed shortly by a fully-fledged replenishment process. The driving force for this process was mySAP SCM. The client was no longer supposed to place any orders, but updated the electronic inventory daily (Bendoly & Jacobs, 2005).
It was able to respond because NIBCO clients embraced the innovation beyond expectations. This value-added service increased NIBCO’s sales greatly, and the company invented even more money to develop this initiative further (Martin, 2006).
Question 3
NIBCO can embark on other new initiatives in order that it continues to enjoy the IT capabilities it possesses currently (NIBCO, 2010). A capability of data warehouse should be developed; as such, an initiative would improve the way NIBCO makes its decisions. In fact, the first assignment of CIO on joining NIBCO ten years ago was to implement this system. However, the initiative never materialized because the company prioritized in ERP package investment. Therefore, the opportunity to implement this capability with an SAP platform availed itself.
With an information warehouse, it is believed the managers at NIBCO would get more insights into the expenses of manufacture and distribution of their products. In conclusion, increase in electronic linkages would put NIBCO in a position to leverage its system platform.