Case Analysis of American Foods Company

The fundamental issue giving rise to the problems suffered by the American Foods Company's (AFC) information services is the lack of communication among the various bodies that input and output AFC's order entry system. In addition, each element of the system is too willing to assign blame to the other without attempting to communicate to try to solve the problem. The obvious symptom that requires immediate attention is the failure of AFC to process orders efficiently and in a timely manner. Monroe is understandably upset at this problem because it forms the basis of AFC's business and profit. The basis for the problem is the failure of AFC to oversee the management of the growth, maintenance and development of its information services in a way that took into consideration all the various aspects of the company. The company's order entry system is composed of approximately 700 different programs that accept orders for all AFC products, manage inventory and distribution, and prepare shipping notices and invoices. However, each of these programs was not specifically designed to be compatible with each other or with AFC's order entry system as a whole.

The AFC system is a batch system that was developed 20 years ago when AFC was basically a breakfast cereal company. As new companies with different product lines were acquired by AFC, AFC included these new companies' order processing systems into their own. A

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ther lines to determine how the new system would affect them. Alternative Course of Action AFC's first alternative is to increase the level of communication among the various sectors of its order processing system. The lack of communication means that each sector merely blames another sector for the problem, but the actual root of the problem is never discovered. Consequently, the problem is never solved. The company must institute a policy that requires that the problems with order processing must be immediately brought to the attention of a supervisor. The only way the AFC system will operate efficiently is as a unified whole, so every attempt must be made to ensure that it does so. Another alternative for AFC is to replace completely the order processing system with a new system specially designed to handle the various aspects of its business. As E. Wainright Martin states in his analysis of information services operations and maintenance, if a system is not well-maintained or there are problems with its operation, the users are forced to struggle with continuous problems (1994, p. 372). Generally, these continuous problems require continuous repair and each repair costs the company a substantial amount of money. Gi

Category: Business - C