Question

1) Provide an example of planning “backwards in time” in your own lives. One example might be completing a big term paper by the end of the semester. Do you think about how long each task of writing the paper should take and which tasks need to be completed before others may begin? Give your own example.

2) Consider the advantages and disadvantages of ERP as described in the text. Based on what you've studied, do you think that installing an ERP system would be worth it, even at a cost of, say $100 million (for a fairly large firm)?

3) What functions of the firm affect an MRP system? How?

Answer 1

ANSWER 1:

One example of backward planning/ backward design/ backward mapping/ backward goal-setting or as mentioned above planning backwards in time in my life would be to successfully complete a research paper on the topic ''The Growth of Smartphone Industry in India" by the end of my final semester in college. For this I would require to map a few task in order to achieve my final goal and that is successfully writing a research paper. The steps for backward planning for writing a paper are as follows:

Step 1: The main aim is to submit the paper before June 2019.

Step 2: Before submission of the paper I need to edit and revise my paper and that I would be doing in the month of May 2019.

Step 3: Before step 2 I need to submit my paper/rough draft to the Writing Lab in any Online Tutoring center.

Step 4: Before step 3 I would be submitting my paper/rough draft to Grammarly, our automated proofreading service.

Step 5: Before that I need to write the conclusion for my paper and that I would be completing before 2 weeks of revising my paper.

Step 6: Before I jump onto conclusion I would be completing the body of my paper and to write the complete body I would be taking approximately 2-3 weeks.

Step 7: Before completing the body I would be writing the Introduction for my topic and that would be taking 1-2 days time.

Step 8: I would need to make an Outline for my paper before I write an Introduction for my topic and that would take roughly around 2 days.

Step 9: Before starting Step 8, I would need to organize my notes and thoughts in a systematic way, it won't take more than a day's time.

Step 10: To organize my notes I first need to have a written thesis and I would be writing a thesis within 2 or 3 weeks time before I could organize my work and put that into a paper.  

Step 11: To write a thesis I first need to perform a thorough research on the web, in the books, articles, newspapers, and anything that would help me in accumulating the primary and secondary data for my research work and this would atleast take a month's time or may be more than that.

Step 12: Before doing anything for the research project I need to figure out a suitable topic that I can work and research upon and that I have already founded and it is " Research on the growth of Smartphone Industry in India in the 21st century".

So I have already started from step 12 and hopefully I will be able to complete my research work before the deadline and that is June 2019.

ANSWER 2 :

The main objective of the ERP system is to use the resources of the company/firm in an efficient and effective way. The major limitation of ERP is its cost. It is compulsory for the employees to get trained on ERP packages and perform the work or else the new and improved skilled workers must be recruited to perform those tasks.Implementing ERP takes time andgreat efforts and thus it leads to increase in the cost. A large firm which spends an amount of approximately 100 million dollars on ERP must plan to receive more benefits and minimize their costs. There are different types of ERP packages available at different different prices in the market and a firm can purchase the ones that are efficient and cost effective for the business operations. By doing so the firm may use its resources in a better and effective way.

ANSWER 3:

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) was defined by Heizer and Render in 2005 as a dependent demand technique that affects just about evry function within a firm and that includes Management, Finance, Production, Purchasing, Marketing, and Engineering. Each one of these fields affects MRP in their own way.

Management is also afected by the MRP by providing the plan to carry out production. Management figures out how much the firm can spend on production. They assist rest of the departments of the firm to make use of the production goals in decision making process.

Production make use of the MRP to plan ahead of how much of everything is needed to meet these goals. They determine the supply levels both for the product and machines that are making the product. They figure out their maintenance schedules to ensure the capability of producing what the MRP asks for.