1.

Introduction

This assignment will look at the process of returning a price for a requested Cooper
Bussmann electrical contactor (know as the Enbray range, which is outside Cooper
Bussmanns core business of fuse manufacturing) for a customer. The reason for
picking this process for the simulation study is to analyse the amount of time it takes
from when a customer requests an Enbray part which is not set-up on the SAP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to point it takes for Cooper Bussmann
to return a price back to the customer. The amount of time this process can take, can
be is so great that potential orders are being lost.

2. Current Situation

A customer will ring Cooper Bussmann Customer Service Team (CST), to request a
price and delivery on an Enbray contactor. If the part is set up on the ERP system the
customer will be given a price from CST and the may place an order for the part.
However if the part is not set-up on the ERP system the CST will have to check with
Technical Application Team (TAT) that the part request is genuine.

If the part is not genuine the CST will transfer the call to the TAT, who will speak to
the customer to give them the correct part number they require, which may or may
not be set-up on the ERP system. The customer will then be transferred back to the
CST.

If the part is genuine CST will take the customer details and the part number of the
item they require and explain to the customer that they will call them back with a
price. Then the CST will fill in an Engineering Change Note (ECN) with the requested
Enbray part number, which will be passed to the Data Management Team (DMT)
who will process the ECN.

The DMT will then seek approval from several Approvers before setting the part up.
Once these approvals have been received the DMT will then set-up the part on then
ERP system.

Once the DMT have set-up the part they will inform the Pricing Team, who will set a
price to the Enbray part on the system and will inform the DMT. The DMT will
complete the ECN and inform the CST that the ECN is completed. The CST will then
call the customer to give them the price and delivery date of the contactor, who may
or may not place an order. This is all shown in Appendix A as Activity Cycle Diagram
(ACD).

The reason why all Enbray parts are not set up on the system is due to the fact when
Cooper Bussmann migrated to the SAP software, it was decided only to structure
parts that were sold in large volume on to system as there were to many part to do.

3. Stakeholders

To identify the stakeholders the following criteria has been used “any individual,
group, community or organization with a potential interest in the outcome of an
Activity, either as a result of being affected by it or by being able to influence the

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project, in a positive or negative way”(nzaidtools.nzaid.govt.nz,2009). With this in
mind the stakeholders have been listed, along with their interest in the project.

The Project Champion will have the greatest interested in the simulation to see
where improvement can be made and to justify the time and cost that will be spent on
the simulation. These improvement will need to be shown to all stakeholder and
higher management. They will also need to justify the project to all involved to get
them on side to do the study.

The Customer would be an important stakeholder because, if they do not get the
information they require in a set period time, they may not place the order.
Customers not placing orders is detrimental to the business, as orders means
income to the firm.

The Customer Service Team have a large vested interested in the simulation study
as the process involves them more than any other group. They have to interact with
the majority of the other groups involved and have to interface with the customer. If
the process is more efficient it may reduce the time they spend on the returning a
price back to the customer.

The Technical Application Team would be an interested party to see if it would

require less of their time in the process.

The Data Management Team would be interested in the simulation study as they
have to deal with pressure from other groups on completing the ECN. It can also take
a longer amount of time to enter some parts on to the ERP system than others
depending on their complexity, which can be wasted if the order is not placed after
the customer finds out the price.

The Pricing Teams influence on the process will minimal, but their overall effect on
an order being placed will be quite high. If the price is to high the order may be lost
and all the set-up time wasted.

The Product Manager for the Enbray range will be interested in the process to see
how many orders are won or lost. They will want to know as much as possible about
the time being used to set-up parts on the ERP system and how many of these turn
out to be completed orders.

The company Directors will what to see why it worth doing the simulation and the
possible benefits it might have to the business in comparison to costs and time
invested.

4. Objectives

The main objective of the simulation would be to see if the time taken to return a
price for an Enbray part, which is not set-up on the ERP system to the customer
could be reduced. It would be also important to see if this would increase the amount
of orders that are placed customer. This would also hopefully reduce the time spent
on process by the Customer Service Team, Technical Application Team, and Data
Management Team.

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The secondary objective of the simulation would be to see if the price that has been
set on the contactor is causing customer not to purchase them. This may not be
possible until after the simulation is done. This is because the customer may not
placing an order due to the time they have had to wait to get a price.

5. Benefits

The overall intension of this simulation is to see if the above objectives are met so
that the realistic benefits are achieved. The most important benefit will be to return a
price to the customer for an Enbray contactor in the quickest time possible. This will
hopefully also increase the amount of order placed by the customer fro Enbray
contactors.

The benefit of the objective and simulation on the Customer Service Team will allow
them to improved their service, to all customers and not just the ones who inquiry
about Enbray parts for the following reasons.
• If there is less paper work to be filled in (completing an ECN form and taking
down customer detail), it will allow extra time to answers more customer
inquires. This will also lead increased customer satisfaction, which will lead to
customer coming back to Cooper Bussmann to do more business.
• They will not have to chase the Data Management Team to find out if the ECN
they have raised has been completed, because the customer is chasing for a
price.

For the Technical Application Team it will allow them to spend more time on dealing
with application inquires, and not confirming if a part is genuine or not.

For the Directors, the Product Managers and the company as whole, it will make the
firm more efficient, by cutting down the wasted time spent on setting up products
which are not sold, which will reduce non value added operations. All the benefits will
lead to the company making greater margins on the products they sell.

6. Data Collection

The majority of the data will need to be collected by the Customer Service Team and
the Data Management Team, but in return they will gain the greatest benefits as
stated above. This can be a way for the Project Champion to get the buy-in of the two
teams to collect data. The buy-in is going to be important to make sure that the data
being collected accurately.

The data that will need to be collected is listed below (and who will collect it);
• The number of customers that inquire about an Enbray contactors (CST).
• How many inquires for Enbray part are already set-up on the system or not
(CST).
• The number of calls transferred to Technical Application Team (CST).
• The time taken to capture customer details (CST).
• The number of ECN raised and the time taken to populate ECN to determine
the average time to complete an ECN (CST).
• The time taken to get all the approvals from the Approvers (DMT)

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 • The time it takes for an Enbray part to be set-up on the ERP system to
determine the average time taken to set-up a part (DMT).
• The time taken for the Pricing Team to give a price to a part. (DMT).
• Time taken to complete an ECN (DMT).
• The overall time taken to get a price back to the customer (CST)
• The number of customers who place an order for a contactor which was
already set-up on the system and the customer who did not and the reason why
(CST).
• The number of customers who places an order for contactor which was not
set-up on the system and the customer who did not and the reason why (CST).

Some of this data may be already collected such the price given to a part and the
time taken to complete ECN. However for the other pieces of data that needs to be
collected it my be best to capture it on a spreadsheet with simply fields to be
completed and not to over complicating the process of data capture.

Once the required data has been identified, it will be important to determine the
quantity of data that will need to be collected. If there is not enough data collected it
may mean that the simulation is not accurate and the results given may not be
correct. However Centeno and Carrillo (2001) state quantity does not mean quality,
so too much data being collected, could take to much time causing frustration to and
not add value to the simulation. For this reason it would be ideal to collect the data
over a 2-4 weeks period. This would give enough data to for the simulation and to
verify the simulation is accurate.

7. Timescale

The initial part of the Project would be to get the buy-in from company director and
find a project sponsor to support the product champion. There will also be a meetings
require to get the buy-in of all the stakeholder and explain the purpose of the project.

The next stage would be the data collection and to analyse the data make sure it is
correct. Once the data is collect the simulation will need to constructed and verified
using the data. This time period will depend on the type of software used (most like of
the shelf) and people tasked with the constructing the simulation (in house or
external contractors).

After verifying the simulation, it can be used run the different changes listed.
• Increasing the number of Enbray part structure on the SAP ERP system.
• Change the number of approvals the Data Management Team have to wait
on.
• Increase the number of people in the Data Management Team dealing with
ECN.
• What would happen in the event if the number of customer calling about
Enbray parts increased or decreased.
• Increasing the number of people in the Customer Service Team.

The next stage would be to analyse the output data from the simulation. This could
take a significant amount of time depending on how the results are shown. This could

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be done on a spreadsheet or even on specialist statistical package which may speed
up the process.

After analysing the results a report will need to written to show the internal
stakeholders the finding of the simulation. The report will contain the
recommendation that should be implemented to meet the objectives, and what the
impact it will have in terms of initial cost or savings. It will also state the impact it will
have on the key stakeholder groups. It will need to be done carefully as not to isolate
one group as they may require to do more work.

Implementation of the new strategy will be very important as, this my require hiring
extra staff. If extra staff is require the time scale of the project will increase as the
recruitment process will need to be done. After the implementation stage there
should be a period of monitoring the changes to proof how accurate the simulation
was and if the implemented changes have been successful. It will also give an
opportunity to review the project as a whole, and to see what could be done better in
future projects.

With this process it should be done in a “timely manner” (Centeno and Carrillo,
2001), so that it will show all internal stakeholders that simulation study is worth
doing and that the result are given in an acceptable period of time.

8. Conclusion

As with any project it very important to spend time on the planning stage to make
sure that all the bases have been covered. It important to set out clear objectives
which need to achieve, and the realistic benefits these will give. It is also important to
get the buy-in of all the stakeholder, to guarantee their support through the life of the
project.

As for the simulation it very important that is verified using the data capture to make
sure it give the correctly result and that results produced in given time frame. It also
needs to be remember that the result seen from the simulation are a calculated guide
to how the process would work if the different variables where changed. The
implementation may differ slightly and may require tweaking to get close to the
desired results.

9. References

Centeno, M.A.,Carrillo, M. 2001. Challenges of introducing simulation as a decision

making tool. Proceedings of the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference, Arlington, VA,
USA

Nzaidtools.nzaid.govt.nz .2009. Logical Framework Approach: Using LFA in

Activity Cycle Management. URL:
http://nzaidtools.nzaid.govt.nz/logical-framework-approach/using-lfa-activity-
cycle-management

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Appendix A: Activity Cycle Diagram

Customer Wait to Wait

be Customer Request Customer Details
for
Customer Calls answere Enbray part Taken
answe
d r

Customer
transferred to Customer Given
Technical Price
Application Team
Outside

Wait
for
answe
r

Hang Up
Check Part with
Technical Application Customer Orders
Part

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Customer Service
Team
Wait
for
Ring Customer answe
r
Idle
Check Part
System
Customer Request
Enbray part
Customer Given
Check Part with Price
Technical Application

Customer transferred
to Technical
Application Team

Customer Orders
Part
Customer Details
Inform Data Taken
Management

Create ECN

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Data Management
Team

Inform Data Process ECN

Idle Management

ECN Complete Price Part Approve Part

Technical Application Pricing Team Approver

Team

Idle Idle Idle

Check Part with

Technical Application Price Part Approve Part