Enterprise Resource Planning System: Coca-Cola Bottling Corporation Consolidated (CCBCC)

About Enterprise Resource Planning

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP the most recent high end solution to business application brought by information technology. The purpose of ERP is to look for the streamline and incorporate operation procedures and the flow of information in the company to be able to amalgamate the resources of a company or an organization, which are the man power, materials, money and machines by means of information. At first, only the very large Multi National Companies and Infrastructure Companies have the capabilities to install and upgrade an ERP package, having the reason that it involves high cost. The need for Enterprise Resource Planning software increased because organizations and business around the world are became conscious on the fast changing business environment. For that reason, it is unachievable for the companies to produce and sustain a conventional software package that has the capability to meet all their requirements and also be fully up-to-date.

But nowadays, since technology keeps on upgrading that leads to easy collection and dissemination of information, a number of companies engaged in applying different Enterprise Resource Planning Strategies offered by ERP software vendors like Oracle and Microsoft. Through this, companies will be able to compete globally with their contenders in their field of business.

We are all aware that in business, a company needs a constant upgrade of their production, managing tactics, business equipments like machines and computers, and information system application. For that reason, there are some demands that are necessary to meet by a company. 

These demands are:

o Aggressive Cost control initiatives

o Need to analyze costs / revenues on a product or customer basis

o Flexibility to respond to changing business requirements

o More informed management decision making

o Changes in ways of doing business

Features of ERP

Some of the major features of ERP and what ERP can do for the business system are as below: 

o ERP ameliorates the wide Integrated Information of the a company, which includes all the functional areas such as the Manufacturing, Human Resources, Inventory, etc.

o ERP executes the company’s core activities and increases customers service that leads to supplementing the company’s image.

o ERP serves as the bridge in between the gap of information in an organization.

o ERP serves as the only possible solution for a better Project Management

o ERP has the capability to adopt in the latest technologies like internet, intranet, Ecommerce, etc.

o ERP removes various business problems like inventory problems, shortage in materials, quality problems, etc.

o ERP provides the opportunity of constantly developing, improving and refining business procedures.

o ERP offers business intelligence tools such as ROBOTS for early warning system that help the people in good decision making and improve business tactics.

  

Components of ERP 

To enable the easy handling of the system the ERP has been divided into the following Core subsystems: 

o Sales and Marketing

o Master Scheduling

o Material Requirement Planning

o Capacity Requirement Planning

o Bill of Materials

o Purchasing

o Shop floor control

o Accounts Payable/Receivable

o Logistics

o Asset Management

o Financial Accounting

About the Company

ORIGIN:

Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina by J.B. Harrison.

FUNCTIONS: 

Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (CCBCC) makes, sells and delivers sparkling and still beverages, primarily products of The Coca-Cola Company. it operates in eleven states all ove the world, primarily, in the southeast.

TRADEMARK: 

COKE is the trademark of CCBCC as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

PURPOSE:

To serve others …To pursue excellence … and To grow profitably. Above all, we strive To honor God in everything we do.

VALUES:

     

    Accountability

    Consistency

    Courage and Conviction

    Discipline

    Honesty and Integrity

    Humility

    Morality

    Optimism

    Respectfulness

    Supportiveness

GOALS:

We will strive to...

Make, sell and deliver products and services better than anyone else.

Develop servant leaders.

Build personal and trusting relationships.

Be leaders in the Coca-Cola System and in the beverage industry.

Provide long-term rewards for our employees.

Build long-term value for our customers.

Generate long-term profitable growth for our shareholders.

What are the needs of CCBCC?

Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (CCBCC) is one of the largest companies that is aware of the importance of engaging into a high technology applications to be able to have an efficient and effective strategic plan that would attract more customers and clients for more income. CCBCC looked for an upgrade in their old version of ERP system that could cater their needs in improving the potentials in finance, Human Capital Management (HCM), sales, procurement, and other enterprise operations that are obtainable in the upgraded version. CCBCC was using SAP r/3 4.7 and Unicode was needed with all new SAP product. CCBCC decided to upgrade their SAP R/3 Enterprise system to SAP ERP 6.0. in order to completely upgrade the system, the company needs to upgrade its existing Oracle Database, and buy extra Oracle License or change into a different database platform. 

Solution:

The CCBCC came up to a decision of engaging to a new database platform which is the IBM DB2, instead of upgrading the Oracle Database.

Benefits:

"Combining the database migration with the SAP Unicode conversion saved time and money. Initial results show that DB2 delivers a reduction in storage needs of approximately 40 per cent. The duration of manufacturing runs was reduced by more than 65 per cent. The migration was completed under budget and ahead of schedule. The company has reduced licensing and maintenance costs by avoiding the purchase of additional Oracle licenses, and predicts savings in the next five years of about US$750,000." This statement from IBM company, in accordance to the result of its system used by CCBCC, shows that their product really fits to what CCBCC really wants. IBM is able to meet the requirements of CCBCC in their database while having an upgrade in their ERP system.

Comparison of ERP with SDLC

The Enterprise Resource Planning is one of the most used strategic system nowadays. Basically, although most of the companies who are engaging in this system are the large one, it still believed to be appropriate for the needs of a company. It can cater all the enterprise functions that a company wants since ERP is installed in accordance to what the company requires. It can be customize and upgraded. Options are presented (in terms of upgrading), depending on the flexibility of the ERp. For instance, SAP R/3 Enterprise system was used together with Oracle database. Since SAP R/3 ERP has been upgrade to SAP 6.0, CCBCC decided to use the IBM DB2 instead of upgrading the Oracle database because it can cost much beyond the budget of the company. On the other hand, SDLC or the System Development Life Cycle requires more time and money since it follows a cycle or step by step procedure. Customization on the system using SDLC can take longer time and need more budget since it requires to take the very first step to be done before proceeding to the next one.

In conclusion, as far as information technology is concern, its more practical (for me) to engage in ERP system. But we must consider also the company background of the vendor that sell such ERP system or application so that we can secure reliability and efficiency of the product. Investing to a new improved system could cost beyond a company's budget but the probable outcome of that one could bring the company to its fame and could have more profit or income.

REFERENCES:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/STRD-7N5MJB?OpenDocument&Site=default&cty=en_us

http://www.cokeconsolidated.com/our-company.aspx

http://www.angelfire.com/co/troyc/erpca.html