Background (General Facts) Ford Motors is one of the three major automobile manufacturing companies in the USA . Based in Michigan in 103 by Henry Ford and grew to reach revenues of $ 150 billion and over 370,000 employees in 1996 [1]. In the 1970s, the automotive market for major car manufacturers - General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler- was crunched by competition from foreign manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda. In 1999, Ford acquired the Swedish Volvo model to try to compete in the foreign market and expand to other regions. In addition, Ford has launched a plan to complete organization business process re-engineering called "Ford 00" to restore the company's infrastructure. The process meant reducing their auto centers (VCs) to only five covering operations which lasted 0 countries. It also meant cutting redundancies and requiring the information technology (IT) to be the driving force and the relationship between Ford centers worldwide.In the construction of Ford's IT infrastructure, the company focused on the implementation of an installation program which supported TCP / IP communication protocol based on the US Department of Defense. At that time, Ford's internal network was designed to serve the file transfer unlike most companies that used the network primarily for electronic communications. Throughout the 190s, Ford has developed a cost-effective process fully Enterprise Network (GENI) to connect all its compromising sites on the type of connection and cabling for a complete coverage. At the same time, Ford began building its Web farm, which was basically a set of hardware and software managed by a team for Ford's public website construction. The work began with the publication of documents for technical references and moved to more advanced images of a car show live. Consequently, the site received 1 million hits per day in less than 2 years after its official launch. Throughout the late 0's, Ford established its web services by increasing the amount of information published, building smarter Web applications and standard in 12 weeks period, the purchase of several Netscape browsers for installation on machines of its users, and the creation of a B2B server to enable suppliers secure access to intranet Ford.in the path to reducing service costs and bring more business through the web, Ford has worked closely with its competitors in the US market GM and Chrysler to establish what came to be known as (ANX) certificate "Automotive Network Exchange". the protocols aimed at providing a standard unified communications across the Internet to allow suppliers to provide a common technology for all manufacturers. in addition, Ford aims to make information on its website more accessible and useful by deploying a team to manage the process of adding and updating information based on an analysis of how humans process information. a final aspect of the Ford effort was to try to build a model through its infrastructure which has benefited the model implemented by Dell computers to improve their supply chain and delivery process. The direct model would not work well for the car as it would with computers, the following Ford worked on remodeling its retail network and identify what would give him the added benefit within Delivery.
Architecture questions Company - regional expansion of Ford to meet the competition for market share required cost management for upgrades of infrastructure
- infrastructure imposes limitations on the development of applications based on the type platforms
- Easy access to information and timely delivery of critical data to key individuals managementOrganizations requires appropriate knowledge of reengineering and remodeling process is necessary when adapting new technologies to keep costs and increase efficiency
- Supply chain errors and delays can seriously affect the progress of the company and the company's market value
Analysis infrastructure Upgrade Since the establishment of the Internet in the 1960s, many efforts have been made in standardizing how computers connect to it. In 1982, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has realized that during this period many systems ad hoc networks are already using the TCP / IP protocol for communications and therefore suitable as standard in its model for the network Internet [2]. The main driver of IP convergence, at that time, was the growth of data traffic across wide area networks (WAN) established by local businesses. In addition, in 1991 the Internet was opened for commercial use, and that required a lower total cost of operating the network to cope with 1 million web servers that have materialized in time 1 year. Telecommunications companies like AT & T understood the potential and worked on the standardization of services on IP networks offer voice network that managed the separation between voice and data transmission [3].At the same time, Ford launched its updated infrastructure plan, and seized the opportunity provided by the global movement for the integration of voice, fax transmission network with the data transmission and expanded its extensive network to include offices in Europe and elsewhere. Financial benefits also came from the fact that Ford adapted the TCP / IP protocol from the start and made sure that all its upgrades of technical infrastructure meet the standards. This makes the transition from the system to the Internet as profitable as it could be.
Web Technologies Intranets employ the technology of hypertext and multimedia used on the Internet. Before 1989, when Tim Burners-Lee invented the Web [4], most applications use standard development languages such as C and C ++ to create desktop applications that owned and dependent on the platform. For example, applications running on an operating system based on UNIX commands such as Windows would not work, and those who work for the PC may not work on Apple computers and vice versa [5]. The invention of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) has introduced a new model for applications that are compliant with standards set by one program, the "Web Browser". Unlike standard applications, the browser has a unified interface that has a very fast learning curve. Users seem to require no additional training to work with Web browsers. Additionally, system administrators did not have to spend time installing upgrades on user machines, since client / server Intranet ease all updates via the connection to the Web server [6] .Since Ford has established its intranet, it aimed to build web applications through the initial analysis of "Mosaic", the first form of web browsers. Ford's technical department used web languages to create the first website in 1995. In 1996, the team began to create applications making use of the unified browser "Netscape" that has been deployed to all machines of business, and to work on a standard to reduce the life cycle development model. There was a substantial reduction in training costs through user-friendly interface of web applications. In addition, the speed of development has made critical applications available to different individuals across the enterprise. For example, the B2B website authorized remote suppliers and secure access to various sections of the Ford intranet. In addition, the development team has created an application as a virtual teardown on the Ford site where Ford engineers could examine the competing car parts and evaluate all new technologies. The alternative would have been a real trip to a physical location where Ford cars hard to consider the parties.
Knowledge Management Although there are many definitions of knowledge, each company can adapt its own based on the way she analytical data information to acquire knowledge. The University of Kentucky, for example, defines knowledge as "a resource of vital organization. It is the raw material, the process of work-in, and a good finish of the decision. different kinds of knowledge used by decision makers include information, procedures and heuristics, among others ... "[7].Organizations go through different activities to manage the amount of information they collect to form the company's knowledge base. activities include the creation of databases of best practices and analysis of market information, grouping and filtering of data classification, integrating knowledge into commercial applications used by employees, and the development of focal points to facilitate the flow of knowledge and building skills [8].Ford was excited about the traffic it was receiving on the website and everyone all published the equipment they have on the desktop on the intranet. However, there was a growing concern about the usability and usefulness of the material people added. Consequently, Ford has created a "knowledge field team" to build a comprehensive information in nine areas that were identified as critical for the company. The process Ford was based on surveys and input specialists in how people perceive information, and what is considered vital and which is annoying in the structure of Ford's website. the purpose of the initiative was to reduce the time people spent in search of information through a good indexing site content, and to ensure that what was important could be reached in time, and what is trivial did not overwhelm the researcher with thousands of results.
Re-engineering business in the field of reengineering the organization of the innovation process is the set of activities that achieve substantial business improvements. Businesses looking to benefit from innovation processes pass through the system to identify the processes, drivers of change, the development of vision, understanding of the current process and building a prototype for the new organization. History shows that organizations properly define their processes will not have problems of management problems and developing drivers of change [9]. During the introduction of technology, the company's overhaul is necessary. Industrial areas have been using information technology to reshape processes, production control and material management for generations. However, it is only recently that companies have recognized that the fusion of IT and business would go beyond automation to fundamentally reshape how business processes are undertaken [10].When foreign companies were allowed to compete in the US market, Ford has realized that to succeed in business in a competitive arena he needed to implement strategies that competitors find difficult to imitate [11]. As a result, Ford bought the Swedish Volvo to enter the European market and partly owned Mazda to have a competitive advantage with Japanese cars1 [12]. To do this, it remodeled its production and overall business organization development activities and processes to reduce costs dramatic. Moreover, he understood that the expansion requires collaboration and alignment, and therefore planned to set up the IT infrastructure with an extensive network linking all offices. In the process of innovation and re-engineering, Ford has set policies to manage the cost of building the network, the models built for the continued implementation, and organized meetings worldwide to align all parties in the process . Adding to that, when it came to managing the site, Ford has facilitated an awareness campaign for all sectors to understand that Ford uses the Web to collaborate and research and adaptation of technology information as a way to maximize the company's value. Ford's goal was to maintain its leading market position and to do so in the most efficient and economical method that is there.
management of the supply chain Supply chain management (SCM) is the coordination between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers [13]. The idea that the SCM applications revolve around providing information to all those involved in making decisions about the product or goods to manage the delivery from supplier to customer [14]. Studies show that reducing errors in the distribution supply chain, increases revenue, improves productivity and reduces the time from order to fulfillment of [15].Ford often compared its supply chain processes to that of Dell, in an attempt to fill the gaps in its own process and to reach the level of success Dell has reached. The difference in the distribution pattern between Dell and Ford is in the middle link of the use of retail stores. Since Ford can not jump to detail as a central distribution point, he worked on the creation of a retail network of stores it owned. Ford made sure the stores are not affecting the other in terms of sales, and gave them all a standard look to set up on the consumer market as a prestigious retail business car sale. In addition, the extensive reorganization initiatives were undertaken to improve the external network eliminating Ford correlation with smaller suppliers. In this way, Ford made sure that key suppliers have access to data prediction from the buying trends of customers and production information to allow faster cycle from order to delivery. Ford vision was to create a model that allowed flexibility, predictable processes and to deliver the product at the right time at the right consumer.
Conclusions Ford is an example of how traditional organizations can mature to adapt what is current and maximizes business value. The process required that Ford has gone through the continued support of management. In addition, it was dependent on the alignment between those implicated as key to success. The correlation was not limited to internal staff; it extended to competitors to achieve mutual benefit, work with suppliers to maintain similar patterns and adequate infrastructure, and to create training programs to educate all on the vision and goals of the organization.Ford technological progress came at a time when the Internet was still to reach its full potential. The introduction of fiber optic cables in the late 0s and the substantial increase in bandwidth would have helped Ford and reduce the cost of connection endured its own offices. In addition, ISP services that provided hosting servers were limited to only a few players, which is why Ford preferred to manage its own web server and maintain the overhead of 24 hours of availability and backup.In this case study, I understand the level of commitment of large companies must maintain their market position. These companies know the renewable nature of the business in the sense of how easy it is to fold if they do not follow the change. Ford process also shows the need for a quick and clever thinking when confronted with situations that may seem to be unfavorable. The way Ford ventured into the foreign market by acquiring local manufacturers was a strategic decision that has not only enabled Ford to merge with different technologies, but it also saved the additional cost of the creation of production centers in Japan and Europe.
Recommendations - The leadership kept on the market requires innovative organizations willing to restructure to succeed.
- merge IT with business means restructuring and remodeling to understand the role it would play to meet the company's objectives
- Planning and modeling is essential when coordinating work with large teams.
- The construction site is not on the content; it is to understand what the man adds value and how to interact with the information.
- Knowledge management is a plan that companies need to develop as part of their initial modeling of business processes
- This is not bad for big companies to try to adapt successful processes implemented by other companies.
References - Robert D. Austin and Mark Cotteleer, "Ford Motor Co. Maximize the business value of Web technologies." Harvard Business Publishing. July 10, 1997. harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=WDARNHINBSYKSAKRGWCB5VQBKE0YOISW?id=198006 (Accessed 30 July 08).
- Computer History Museum, History of the Internet computerhistory.org/internet_history/internet_history_80s.shtml 80. 06. (accessed 30 July 08).
- Darren Wilksch and Peter Shoubridge, "Global IP Telecommunications Convergence." Defense Science & Technology Organization. Http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/2400/DSTO-TR-1046.pdf March 01. (accessed 30 July 08).
- Computer History Museum, History of the Internet 80.
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- Henk Akkermans A., et al. "The impact of ERP on the management of the supply chain: the results of an exploratory study European Delphi." European Journal of Operational Research 146 (03): 284-301, 286
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