Management Information System at BPL Display Devices Limited

CONTENTS
1. Introduction 2. Timelines 3. Acknowledgement 4. Background 5. Objective of Study 6. Company Overview 7. MIS: A Definition 8. Information flow Systems in the company 9. Snapshots in Oracle based systems 10. Recommendations References

INTRODUCTION
The plethora of Information in todays world, makes it imperative for us to depend on Management Information System, as the socio-technical tool to handle the overloading of Information and take decisions in a quick manner. The project work is done with the intention of studying the Management Information System of BPL Display Devices Ltd., which is one of the earliest companies to install such tools to enhance its productivity and profitability in the country. The study is based on observing and analyzing for the learning of the subject and understands how technology can be used to make better decisions based on the information derived from the raw data. The flow of data from the source i.e. the customer in the various areas, to the various processes in order to make it into information that can be helpful to the management to increase efficiency and serve the customers better, avoid incompetence and be more effective. The study also envisages the software that is used to implement the system in the company. The development of the system, the steps followed has been covered, giving an insight that goes onto the preparation of the MIS. The project consists of certain reports that have been taken from the organization, to give a clear picture of the variety of information required for the various departments of the Organization. The project finally tries to give recommendations to the efficient MIS that has been prepared by the employees of BDDL, in-house, such that the system truly becomes one without any loopholes and very effective in managing and controlling the voluminous information.

TIMELINE
19-Nov06 26-Nov06 3-Dec06 Week Starting 10-Dec19-Nov06 06 26-Nov06 3-Dec06 10-Dec06

Activities Approaching prospective companies Submitted Proposal to BDDL, waiting for Approval Subsequent to proposal acceptance and approval, organizing company visit Company visits and information gathering - Primary Research Information Review and Analysis Preparation of a Draft Report Final Report Ready for Submission

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The role of Management Information Systems has changed and expanded over the last four decades. In the incipient decade (1950s and '60s), electronic data processing systems could be afforded by only the largest organizations. They were used to record and store bookkeeping data such as journal entries, specialized journals, and ledger accounts. This was strictly an operations support role. By the 1960s management information systems were used to generate a limited range of predefined reports, including income statements (they were called P & Ls back then), balance sheets and sales reports. They were trying to perform a decision making support role, but they were not up to the task. By the 1970s decision support systems were introduced. They were interactive in the sense that they allowed the user to choose between numerous options and configurations. Not only was the user allowed to customize outputs, they also could configure the programs to their specific needs. There was a cost though. As part of your mainframe leasing agreement, you typically had to pay to have an IBM system developer permanently on site. The main development in the 1980s was the introduction of decentralized computing. Instead of having one large mainframe computer for the entire enterprise, numerous PCs were spread around the organization. This meant that instead of submitting a job to the computer department for batch processing and waiting for the experts to perform the procedure, each user had their own computer that they could customize for their own purposes. Many poor souls fought with the vagaries of DOS protocols, BIOS functions, and DOS batch programming. As people became comfortable with their new skills, they discovered all the things their system was capable of. Computers, instead of creating a paperless society, as was expected, produced mountains of paper, most of it valueless. Mounds of reports were generated just because it was possible to do so. This information overload was mitigated somewhat in the 1980s with the introduction of executive information systems. They streamlined the process, giving the executive exactly what they wanted, and only what they wanted. The 1980s also saw the first commercial application of artificial intelligence techniques in the form of expert systems. These programs could give advice within a very limited subject area. 5

The 1990s saw the introduction of strategic information systems. This was largely because of developments in the subject of strategic management by scholars like M. Porter, T Peters, J. Reise, C. Markides, and J. Barney in the 1980s. Competitive advantage became a hot management topic and software developers were happy to provide the tools. The role of business information systems had now expanded to include strategic support. The latest step was the commercialization of the Internet, and the growth of intranets and extranets at the turn of the century.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The work aims to understand the concept of Management Information System and its functioning in the organization operating in the present era of competition and globalization where the prime concern of the organizations is to maximize profit and reduce costs. The focus of the study is the MIS of BPL Display Devices Limited. The objective is also to gain insights into the software interface used in the form of Oracle based applications in the organization. The work finally aims at finding out the benefits and drawbacks, if any, associated with this concept and the possible measures that may be taken to nullify them. We have also intended to reaffirm the belief that at the most senior

levels, MIS provides the data and information to help the board and management make strategic decisions and at other levels, MIS provides the means through which the institution's activities are monitored and information is distributed to management, employees, and customers.

COMPANY OVERVIEW
Uptron Colour Picture Tube Limited was taken over by BPL Limited in June 1996 for revival. The agreement was completed with the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. The overhauling was completed in 1997 with trial production commencing in September 1997. The name was changed to BPL Display Devices Limited from Uptron CPT Ltd during the same year. Acquiring BDDL was in line with BPL's strategy of backward integration of its core business of Colour Televisions. The CPT being an important component constituting more than 40% of its cost, the acquisition has helped BPL to maintain its number one position in the CTV market in spite of many multinationals in the field since India's economic liberalization. Quadra Point Focus, flatter tube designs and consistent quality and manufacturing improvements have helped BPL in launching several models during the last four years. In Sept.1998, the upgradation of plant capacity to 1 million Colour Picture Tubes (CPT's) per annum was completed with the addition of a 21" CPT facility and the commercial production of 21" CPT's commenced in March 1999. Sales and Productivity increases demanded the introduction of a 7-day workweek in August 1999 and followed soon after with a TPM declaration in end October 1999 to focus on further productivity improvements. The production (*refer production charts) of CPT's hit a peak of 725,000 units during 1999-2000 and with the further enhancement of capacity to 1.2 million CPT's per annum, financial year 2000-2001 saw production of over 900,000 CPT's. By removing bottlenecks in the Front Processes in Feb 2001, the plant capacity was increased to 1.4 million CPT's per annum. The plant is currently gearing up to be India's first Pure Flat Tube manufacturing facility, with a plan to further enhance the Plant Capacity to 1.8 million CPT's per annum. Since 1997, BDDL has sold more than 3 million CPT's in India and abroad.

Turnaround Strategy: In Brief:

Revival Strategy that included a core team, plant overhaul, training of engineers abroad and rehabilitation & involvement of workmen. Build-up strategy with an apt organizational structure and strong technical team building. Consolidation strategy that included introduction of additional products, capacity enhancement via a 7 day workweek that resulted in a marked productivity increase, IT upgradation for Financials, across the board quality consciousness (ISO 9002 certification), pursuing JiPM TPM under guidance of Mr. Sueo Yamaguchi of JiPM-Japan and Industrial Relations Management activities.

The years ahead: Wider customer base for consistent sales, introduction of Pure Flat Picture Tubes by Aug. 2002, export of picture tubes, Environment Management System (ISO 14001) by end March 2002, capacity upgradation and further cost reduction programs.

Continue to be the best CPT manufacturer in India with an increasing global presence in line with our group philosophy - "Believe in the Best !"

The revival strategy started with the seeding of a corporate mission statement and guiding principles. This philosophy was explained to the workmen so as to communicate the expectations of the management. This also helped in understanding workmen expectations and in counseling them prior to the start of production. The build-up strategy involved a new organisational structure wherein plant executives were regrouped into various working departments with clear-cut responsibilities and accountability. This coincided with the completion of the cold and hot runs in July 1997. States Mr. NVGK Bhat, "We started massive clean-up operations as can be expected once a sick unit is taken over. We realized that the actual damage to equipment was much more than expected. Our core team comprising of experienced professionals from BPL and other factories undertook this challenge. We trained 38 engineers at Toshiba, USA and their

dedication saw the completion of the plant overhaul. An important factor in our revival included involving our plant workmen by divulging our mission, targets and related corporate plans to them." Continues Mr. Bhat, "With productivity improvement measures in place and across the board quality consciousness, we resolved to make this plant a model of operational efficiency." The CONSOLIDATION STRATEGY included introduction of a new product - 21" CPT in September 1998, with related capacity increases, productivity improvements (with a focus on yields, optimizing cost of utilities and reducing the overhead costs). These strategies were set into motion with a specific plan to target an increase in the existing customer base. With the introduction of Oracle Financials for the financial management of the plant, the benefits of information technology implementation with regard to financial discipline were realized and regular audits helped improve the Finance Management. The quality improvement measures included Quality Task Force Activities followed by JiPM TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) activities. TPM activities were initiated under the guidance of Mr. Sueo Yamaguchi of JIPM-Japan. These included Kaizens, loss structure analysis, defect and scrap reduction projects, model machines activities, 5S activities and regular audits. The Human Resource activities implemented during the revival strategy were crucial to workers' general welfare. These activities included signing of new wage agreements in 1999, continuous dialogue with the workmen's union, awareness programs, skill-up training and periodic reviews. TPM training and keeping lines of communication open between the management and workers have played an important role in streamlining the plant. The STRATEGIC PLANS for the years ahead for BDDL include the introduction of 21" Pure Flat Tube, widening the customer base, increasing automation, simultaneous manpower redeployment and increasing the production capacity.

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21" Pure Flat Colour Picture Tubes: Toshiba Corporation, Japan and BDDL have entered into an agreement to manufacture 21" Pure Flat Colour Picture Tubes at BDDL's manufacturing unit at Sahibabad. This will be the first time that Pure Flat Picture Tubes will be manufactured in India. Toshiba and BDDL have a relationship that dates back to 1995, when a Technical Collaboration Agreement for the manufacture of improved 20" Colour Picture Tube was signed. Toshiba is the acknowledged world leader in Visual Display Product Technology and is at the forefront in leading edge display technologies. BDDL is emerging as a strong CPT manufacturer of Quadra Point Focus (QPF) technology and is committed to delivering the best in terms of customer satisfaction.

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MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM: A DEFINITION

Management Information System is defined as a system that collects or retrieves, processes, stores, and distributes information to support decision making in an organization. MIS and the information it generates are generally considered essential components of prudent and reasonable business decisions. So MIS refers broadly to a computer-based system that provides managers with the tools for organizing, evaluating and efficiently running their departments. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, an MIS can include software that helps in decision making, data resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support systems, people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently. Because MIS supplies decision makers with facts, it supports and enhances the overall decision making process. MIS also enhances performance throughout an institution. At the most senior levels, it provides the data and information to help the board and management make strategic decisions. At other levels, MIS provides the means through which the institution's activities are monitored and information is distributed to management, employees, and customers. Effective MIS ensures the appropriate presentation formats and time frames required by operations and senior management is met. MIS can be maintained and developed by either manual or automated systems or a combination of both. The effective deliveries of an institution's products and services are supported by the MIS. These systems should be accessible and useable at all appropriate levels of the organization. Frequently, operational processes and feedback devices are intertwined and cannot easily be viewed separately. The most efficient and useable MIS should be both operational and 12

informational. As such, management can use MIS to measure performance, manage resources, and help an institution comply with regulatory requirements. One example of this would be the managing and reporting of loans to insiders. MIS can also be used by management to provide feedback on the effectiveness of risk controls. Technology advances have increased both the availability and volume of information management and the directors have available for both planning and decision making. Correspondingly, technology also increases the potential for inaccurate reporting and flawed decision making. Because data can be extracted from many financial and transaction systems, appropriate control procedures must be set up to ensure that information is correct and relevant. In addition, since MIS often originates from multiple equipment platforms including mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers, controls must ensure that systems on smaller computers have processing controls that are as well defined and as effective as those commonly found on them traditionally larger mainframe systems.

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INFORMATION FLOW SYSTEMS IN THE COMPANY

The whole material management process of the company is managed through with the following departments for the purpose of Information Systems: Purchase Inventory Accounts Commercial

The regular tasks which the inventory department handles and the way it interacts with are explained below Inventory Replenishment There are pre-set Re-order levels and re-order quantities set for all the raw materials into the inventory system, these levels have been determined by a complete business analysis and forecasting which happens once every quarter for example for the current quarter the re-order level for Graphic & Video chips have been set at 12,000 units and the re-order quantity is 90,000 units. Now when any item of inventory reaches the re-order level quantity, the replenishment process is triggered and a requisition is sent to the purchase department which then electronically places order to the suppliers both domestic and international. Effect of the Purchase Transaction The purchase transaction that is triggered by the inventory system then also updates the accounts as the value of purchase and taxes paid on purchases are recorded in the books of accounts in addition to updating the inventory records.

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Effect Commercial Department The products produced are sold through the commercial department, the commercial department is a decision making body which consists of top management and the sales department for the company. This department inputs the data on quantity sold as and when the transaction takes place. Again as the entire system is centrally linked the transaction updates both the inventory and the accounts department as well. The Accounts department recognizes revenue on the basis of the data received from the commercial department only. Further, the commercial department also oversees the operations of all other departments, which provide regular reports to this department The process has been almost completely automated in the company as all the vendors for the suppliers are strategic partners of the company and are more or less fixed and also have an EDI enabled interaction with the company thus enabling the company to achieve very high levels of efficiency in material handling and ordering. We depict the relationship shared by the material management process with the customers and the suppliers by the following Context Level Diagram:-

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Now we decompose the above context level diagram to represent the Level-0 DFD Diagram in order to show the relationships between different processes and how the information flows between these processes of the company.

Customers

Invoice Product

Customer Order Shipment Request 2 Manage Inventory Product Inv Info

1 Process Customer Order Purchase Value Low Inv Notice

Sales, Purchase & Inv Value

4 Accounts

Low Inv Notice

Receipt Notification

Confirmation Of Prod Receipt Product

3 Purchase Product

Delivery Note Supp Invoice

Order & Payment Supplier

Reports

Reports

Commercial Reports

Reports

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The company has four basic processes namely: Customer Order Process: This process handles the customer interaction function of the organization. The process starts with the submission of quotations to the customers to bid for the order and then on receiving the order a shipment request is transferred to the manage inventory process. It also sends the information regarding sales purchase and inventory value to the accounts process on receiving the product from manage inventory process. Then it delivers the product and invoice to the customers. But in the case it receives a low inventory notice from the manage inventory process it sends the notice to the purchase department and then on completion of the order the purchase process sends a receipt notification to the process customer process Manage Inventory Process: This process receives the shipment request from the customer order process and if it has the sufficient inventory it sends the product to this process but if does not have it sends a low inventory notice. And also when the purchase process places an order to the suppliers then the suppliers delivers the product to this process and then it sends the confirmation of the product receipt to the purchase product process. Purchase Product Process: This process receives the low inventory notice from the customer order process and then places the order to the suppliers. Then on receiving the invoice and delivery note it updates the databases of the suppliers and the purchase ledger. Accounts Process: This process handles the maintenance of records of daily transactions which are financial in nature and generate reports based on these on a periodic base. The process also takes care of the fact that the company follows the regulations related to the reporting procedures to various regulations set by various regulating authorities. It also takes inputs from the customer order process with respect to their expenses and revenue statements. To summarize the department is responsible for the financial and cost accounting procedures and is required to carry them efficiently.

Note: All the processes are sending requisite reports to the commercial department

Level-1 DFD: Managing Inventory 1. Process 3. 2.3 Custome Purchase Receive 17 Receive Confirmation of Product r Product Product Low Inventory Shipment Request Product Product Notice Receipt Supplier Reorder

2.2 Manage 2.1 Inventor Process Low Inventory Product Request Product y Notice Storage

Level-2 DFD: Managing Inventory

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2.3 Receive Product

Product

2.2.1 Store Product

Product

Section storage
Product

2.1 Process Request

Product Low Inventory Notice

2.2.2 Retrieve Product

Low Inventory Notice

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Level-1 DFD: Customer Order Process

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Level-1 DFD: Purchase Order Process

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The data and information flow through various divisions of the company are managed through Oracle based applications. Some of the snapshots and their subsequent descriptions are mentioned below:

This shows report specifically to the purchase side of the transaction. All reports could not be displayed due to size constraint. Request for any report could be given by an employee and it will be displayed to him if his position permits.

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This shows report relating to inventory manag,ement. All reports relating to inventory are displayed. Important thing here is that all the reports are interlinked. So if one report is modified it will have an impact on the other department as well. For example if company purchases an item, then by doing an entry in the purchase segment, automatically the inventory is also updated. Also re-order levels are preset in the system. So if an inventory level of an item reached below that level, it automatically sends a trigger to the purchase department to purchase that.

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This shows all the reports relating to the receivables side of the business, that s the accounts side. This shows all the reports that are created by the finance department of the company. Some reports are manually created while some are generated by the software itself. Manual data entry also takes place which again is in the hands of a few selected people. The option of data entry and modification of the reports is available based on the position of the person in the company. Thus access to financial data is not available to all.

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This display shows all the reports available on the Oracle database that can be viewed by the employees. It includes reports on 4 different departments-Purchase, Inventory, Accounts and Commercial. As per the requirements the desired report can be generated. However access to any report is not available to everyone. The seniority of a person will decide whether access is granted to the specific employee or not.

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This shows the various reports available to the company on the transactions side. The reports are available to the company through a central data base and are updated regularly. The data in the report for the transaction is then updated for the Inventory well. All the systems are interlinked, so the changes made in one will have an effect on others.

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This shows a request be a person for a report. The parameters fro the request are in codes which are understood by the software itself and the desired report is generated.

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This is a request for a transaction report by an employee. The availability of a report is determined by the seniority of a person i.e. certain reports will be available only to a select few individuals above a certain seniority.

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This shows the summary of all the requests by different employees for different reports. This also shows the status of the query and also the priority clearance it had. Higher the priority rating, quicker will the query be attended to.

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This request shows a request for an inventory transaction report by an employee. Along with the report the start time as well as the end time is displayed for which the report was viewed. The report regarding inventory is not available to all. Report is available on the basis of the seniority of the person in question. These reports regarding inventory are a key source for inventory management and are also useful for the purpose of purchase department. There is a trigger set in the system at the reorder level which sends a message to the purchase department regarding the shortage of a particular item. It then does not allow the system to make any more sell entries for that particular item till the inventory is again replenished.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
When there is low inventory available with the inventory process then the information should be directly sent to the purchased department this will decrease the access time and improves efficiency.

Every process is sending the accounts related information to the customer order process which then sends the information to the accounts process. Although this reduces the chances of duplication of data but it leads to a lot of unnecessary information flow and hence decreases the efficiency. We propose that each process to have different access permissions and hence it updates the required fields in the database which is then retrieved by the accounts process.

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