Imt Custom Machine Company Case Study

​ ​​Sept. 18, 2012

IMT Custom Machine Company Case Study

1.)​The assignment given to Charles Browning was completely necessary in terms of development and sustainability of Custom Machines Company, Inc. (CMCI), a subsidiary of International Machine & Tools (IMT). He was asked to learn, investigate and develop a recommendation for the IS activities in the wake of CMCI tighten then expanding its operations over the past volatile decades in the custom machines industry. As one of the largest custom production machine companies in the world, CMCI was operating using under-supported, pieced together systems that required updating and revising before crisis would result that would affect production.

There were some major issues of his assignment to focus on. There were two groups supporting Fort Wayne's information systems but they lacked interconnectivity to each other through the mainframe since they used different networks to share information. Several of the programs used to give quotes and process specifications were inefficient, causing staff to waste a lot of time and money using workarounds to get a customer's job order completed. The entire HR department was segregated away from the other departments, many of the engineers were unfamiliar with the UNIX operating system employed, and information systems personnel were using workarounds to make the information systems work properly. Browning's assignment was to fix these issues and improve the work-process flow by using information processes and technology more effectively.

2.)​A mission and vision statement should define the organization's fundamental purpose and primary objective, as well as define the organization's values about how work should be completed. It's meant to motivate employees to realize an inspiring common vision of the future in which they can all share in. Typically, the mission statement should also identify the key measure of success and desired result, while the vision statement seeks to uncover the human value in the mission and formulate of picture of where the organization is headed.

I feel CMCI's Mission/Vision Statement that was prepared by Edward Fortesque served its purpose on a basic level, but it could have been much more effective as an overall company testament. The mission of being recognized as the best in the world came off as desirable, yet cliché, and didn't attempt to define any measures of success. Some of the market leadership goals were listed in one-word bullet form and could have been elaborated on to give further clarification of what the company was looking to achieve. There was a large focus on quality, which is very important, but you could almost tell that the entire company's mission/vision statement was in fact constructed by the Manager of Quality assurance. The operational goals were better defined and really painted a picture of what was to be expected, however the vision statement was almost identical to the mission - to be the best. Overall, I think the entire mission/vision statement lacked a comprehensive and motivational tone, and didn't illustrate an enthusiasm towards company culture and its objectives, which is shown by the growing frustrations of the employees.

The starting point for any strategic plan is the development of effective and actionable goals and objectives with a clear direction on how to achieve them. This will ensure employee buy-in and commitment and set the stage for deployment of the company's plan. Objectives should support goals and provide specific measureable details so it could be determined if the goal has been reached or not.

The Fort Wayne MIS Direction and Objectives statement issued by Joe O'Neil, division MIS manager, gave a much more appropriate summarization of the department's purpose. The direction statements are concise of what the MIS division's top priorities are; however, these are more in the short-term mind frame and may have to be changed down the road once they are accomplished. The listed objectives provide an outline for the department's purpose and what it is specifically looking to achieve. Unfortunately, although they may have been appropriately developed, the direction and objectives of the MIS division were not fully adopted as of yet. O'Neil is trying to provide a framework for what he feels the division needs and I think if Browning uses his statements as a guide, a more structured MIS strategy will be put into effect.

3.)​A company's information systems architecture is an ongoing business function that helps the IT department figure out how to execute the best strategies that drive its development. There have been some specific developments within CMCI over the past five years that have impacted the overall information systems architecture. The mainframe upgrade in 2001 increased mainframe usage through the company, along with using the inherited IBM AS/400. However, MIS personnel had a very difficult time exchanging data between the two systems due to security issues and the reliance on PC's began to compensate for the lack of sufficient mainframe software support and lengthy systems development time. Using PC's to arbitrarily fill the gaps in operational needs indefinitely impacted CMCI's original business strategy and this is one of the procedures that will need to be addressed going forward. It should define what business processes will run from the PC's and which processes will run on the mainframe, and the flow of data between the two machines must significantly improve.

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