ARTICLE IN PRESS

Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

Enterprise information systems project implementation:

A case study of ERP in Rolls-Royce
Yahaya Yusufa,*, A. Gunasekaranb, Mark S. Abthorpec
a
Business School, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
b
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA
c
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK

Abstract

Economic globalisation and internationalisation of operations are essential factors in integration of suppliers,
partners and customers within and across national borders, the objective being to achieve integrated supply chains. In
this effort, implementation of information technologies and systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP)
facilitate the desired level of integration. There are cases of successful and unsuccessful implementations. The principal
reason for failure is often associated with poor management of the implementation process. This paper examines key
dimensions of implementation of ERP system within a large manufacturing organisation and identifies core issues to
confront in successful implementation of enterprise information system. A brief overview of the application of ERP
system is also presented and in particular, ERP software package known as SAP R/3, which was the ERP software
package selected by Rolls-Royce plc. The paper takes an in-depth look at the issues behind the process of ERP
implementation via a case study methodology. It focuses on business and technical as well as cultural issues at the heart
of the Rolls-Royce implementation. The case study also looks at the implementation time scales and assesses the
benefits from the project both tangible and intangible.
r 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: ERP; Information systems; Implementation; Success factors; Rolls-Royce

1. Introduction quality in addition to greater flexibility and

responsiveness and thus today’s organisations
The global nature of modern marketplace must compete based on all competitive objectives.
requires active players to internationalise their In order to achieve such simultaneity in perfor-
operations. In the past, companies were used to mance objectives, some organisations have decen-
competing based on one or two competitive tralised their operations by global outsourcing of
performance objectives such as price and quality. activities. This places enormous challenge on
However, present markets demand both price and companies to achieve a co-ordinated and inte-
grated supply chain. The emergence of various
information technologies such as the Internet,
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-1486466933; fax: +44-
1482466216. electronic data interchange (EDI) and WWW
E-mail address: yahaya.yusuf@hull.ac.uk (Y. Yusuf). facilitate the attainment of an integrated supply

0925-5273/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2003.10.004
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252 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

chain and in turn flexibility and responsiveness in 2. Enterprise resource planning

meeting changing market requirements. Informa-
tion systems such as manufacturing resource In the 1990s innovations in information tech-
planning (MRPII) and enterprise resource plan- nology led to the development of a range of
ning (ERP) in particular have gained ground in software applications aimed at integrating the flow
providing support for achieving an integrated of information throughout a company, and these
supply chain. commercial software packages were known as
Firms around the world have been implement- Enterprise Systems. During this period one parti-
ing ERP systems since the 1990s to have a uniform cular enterprise system called ERP caught the
information system in their respective organisa- attention of some of the worlds largest companies.
tions and to re-engineer their business processes It has been estimated that businesses around the
(Rajagopal, 2002). ERP system as a packaged world have been spending almost $10 billion per
software has the advantages of reduced cost, rapid year on ERP systems. ERP aims to integrate
implementation, and high system quality (Lucas business processes through the support of an
et al., 1988). Although application packages have integrated computer information system (O’Brien,
these benefits over custom design software, pack- 1999).
aged software have problems of uncertainty in ERP allows the corporate management of a
acquisition and hidden costs in implementation. business, and aims to integrate individual func-
Successful ERP implementation must be managed tional systems such as manufacturing, finance,
as a program of wide-ranging organisational procurement and distribution. The systems allow
change initiatives rather than as a software companies to replace their existing information
installation effort. Such IT-driven initiatives re- systems and also help to standardise the flow of
quire change of the organisation’s socio-economic management information and have been regarded
system, which is intertwined with technology, task, as the next step in the evolution of MRPII. The
people, structure, and culture. Thus organisational MRPII model actually forms the basic core of
resistance to change is identified as a critical ERP and uses similar modules, however some
success factor for ERP implementation (Hong ERP systems do contain certain modules that were
and Kim, 2002). not originally used within MRPII such as compu-
Organisational fit and adaptation are important ter aided design (CAD), distribution resource
to implementation of modern large-scale enter- planning (DRP), tool management systems
prise systems that are built with pre-determined (TMS), and product data management (PDM)
business process methodology. As a result, custo- (Yusuf, 1998; Prasad et al., 1999).
misation is a crucial, lengthy, and costly aspect in ERP uses Internet technologies to integrate the
the successful implementation of ERP system, and flow of information from internal business func-
has, accordingly, become a major speciality of tions as well as information from customers and
many vendors and consulting companies. Gefen suppliers. The system uses a relational database
(2002) examines how such companies can increase management system, within client/server network
their clients’ perception of engagement success architecture, to capture valuable management
through increased client trust, that is brought data. The key principle behind the system involves
about through respective and dependable custo- entering the data from a series of modular
misation. applications only once. Once stored, the data
Considering the importance of ERP in SCM, an automatically triggers the update of all related
attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the information within the system. The systems can
implementation issues of ERP in a major UK support virtually all areas of an organisation,
company. The lessons learned from this company across business units, departmental functions
would be useful for other companies in their and plants. The development of an ERP system
efforts to successfully implement modern ERP within a large manufacturing organisation requires
system. the integration of working practices and the
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 253

information systems (Davenport, 1998; Mandal Van Stijn and Wensley (2001) focus on problems
and Gunasekaran, 2002). that may arise after ERP systems have been
Companies that use ERP can gain a competitive implemented—the in-use phase. Various problems
advantage from the way they implement the have been identified regarding the ERP systems in-
system and then exploit the resulting data. Many use. Because of the organisational unwillingness or
companies that have installed ERP have claimed inability to make technology upgrades (Markus
to be more nimble within the marketplace than and Tanis, 2000), the enterprise system may take
their competitors with hard-to-change custom on the appearance of a legacy system in disguise.
made systems (Latamore, 1999).
ERP systems offer companies the following
three major benefits: 3. Implementation of ERP
* Business process automation.
ERP when successfully implemented, links all
* Timely access to management information.
areas of a company including order management,
* Improvement in the supply chain via the use of
manufacturing, human resources, financial sys-
E-communication and E-commerce.
tems, and distribution with external suppliers and
A vital task when implementing an ERP System customers into a tightly integrated system with
is to understand the difference between functions shared data and visibility (Chen, 2001). Potential
and modules. Functions are defined as actual benefits include drastic declines in inventory,
physical tasks that are performed within a breakthrough reductions in working capital,
company. Whilst modules can be considered as abundant information about customer wants and
pieces of software that help to provide the needs, along with the ability to view and manage
functions, different ERP vendors have different the extended enterprise of suppliers, alliances and
modules that perform the functions. The enor- customers as an integrated whole (Escalle et al.,
mous growth of the Internet and Microsoft 1999).
Windows packages, complementary as they are The term ERP stands for enterprise resource
as collaborative tools has made the argument for planning, however it is not good enough to just
ERP more compelling (Loizos, 1998). It is now a plan resources required to run the enterprise, they
general industry view that ERP will take them to need to be managed as well. An organisation must
new heights of efficiency by enabling them to move assess itself, to see if it is ready for ERP. It must
financial and other data speedily from one determine if it is ready for the competitive business
department to another (Holt, 1999). environment of today and then strengthen its
Companies have spent billions of dollars and position for tomorrow’s changes. Some of the
used numerous amounts of man-hours installing companies that implement ERP systems do not
elaborate ERP software systems. The ERP soft- realise the full benefits that the system offers
ware vendor market has experienced rapid growth because most organisations are not organised in
in the late 1990s. In 1998 there were five major the correct fashion to achieve the benefits. Many
software vendors offering ERP solutions to companies that attempt to implement ERP sys-
businesses worldwide. The largest of these was tems run into difficulty because the organisation is
SAP AG (http://www.SAP.com) who earned over not ready for integration and the various depart-
$5 billion in revenue. The Oracle Corp. was the ments within it have their own agendas and
second largest with $2.4 billion in sales. Followed objectives that conflict with each other (Langen-
in third place by PeopleSoft (http://www.People- walter, 2000).
soft.com) who earned $1.3 billion. In fourth place While companies such as Cisco Systems, East-
was J.D. Edwards with $979 million. And finally in man Kodak, and Textronix have reaped the
fifth place was the Baan Co. (http://www.Baan. expected benefits of ERP systems, many businesses
com) with $743 million in sales (Holland and are discovering that their ERP implementation
Light, 1999). is a nightmare. FoxMeyer Drug, a $5 billion
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pharmaceutical company, recently filed for bank- Huang and Palvia (2001) analyze the ERP
ruptcy (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000; Chen, 2001). implementation issues in advanced and developing
Dell Computers spent tens of millions of dollars countries. Umble et al. (2003) presents the
on an ERP system only to scrap it because the empirical findings on implementation procedures
system was too rigid for their expanding global and critical success factors for ERP. Van Stijn and
operations (Trunick, 1999). ERP implementations Wensley (2001) address some concerns, methods
involve, in truth, broad organisational transfor- and directions for future research on organisa-
mation processes, with significant implications to tional memory and the completeness of process
the organisation’s management model, organisa- modelling in ERP systems.
tion structure, management style and culture, and Most ERP software vendors supply their
particularly, to people (Wood and Caldas, 2001). customers with an implementation programme as
ERP software is very adaptable but not very part of an overall solution package. For example
malleable and companies that wish to use them SAP provides some of its customers with acceler-
correctly have to change their working practices to ated SAP (ASAP). ASAP suggests the adoption of
fit the software. The key factor of an ERP a ‘big bang’ implementation. This programme opts
implementation is the way in which the software for a quick implementation that is specifically
is configured. The most important issue to identify designed for small and medium sized companies.
before an implementation is the ‘core’ of the ‘Big bang’ implementations offer lower costs and
business, which can be identified by the use of the generally use only a few of the software’s inter-
business model (Chung and Snyder, 2000). faces, however the risks are greatly increased, as
One original motive for buying an ERP system less time is spent on development and assessing
was to automate business processes, but the business needs. There are several more papers on
modern view has shifted to the quick access of ERP implementation and some of the most recent
up-to-date and timely management information. ones include Mabert et al. (2003), Olhager and
The majority of difficulties experienced by ERP Seldin (2003), Umble et al. (2003) and Wood and
implementations have been the costly development Caldas (2001).
of additional software to help ‘bridge’ or retrieve
information from legacy systems. Before ERP
management reports can be generated and dis- 4. Systems, applications and products in data
tributed to managers, the data has to be created processing
first which can be a costly and inefficient process.
In an attempt to improve the timeliness and Five former IBM employees originally founded
accuracy of management data, many software systems, applications and products in data proces-
vendors are making end-users responsible for sing (SAP) in Mannheim, Germany in 1972. Their
updating their own information rather than aim was to produce standard software application
relying on IT resources. programmes that could integrate with each other
ERP software consists of a number of modules to form a business solution. SAP has been
that link together to form a complete business dedicated to produce products that improve the
solution, however the main difficulties experienced return on information gathered by an organisa-
by ERP users have been in manipulating the data tion. The company began its life with the name
stored within the system. Software developers have ‘Systemanalyse Und Programmentwicklung’ and
begun to address the need for additional informa- eventually became known as SAP.
tion tools. Some of these tools include the need for SAP’s first product known as R/2 was built and
detailed and advanced planning and advanced prototyped for a subsidiary of ICI. The system
scheduling and customer relationship manage- they produced was simply known as system ‘R’,
ment. Abdinnour-Helm et al. (2003) discussed which stands for ‘Real-time’ processing. This
the pre-implementation attitudes and organisa- system was fully integrated and could be used on
tional readiness for implementing an ERP system. the IBM mainframe. The R/2 solution was
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 255

launched in 1979 and was developed for a tries in 1989. This acquisition allowed Rolls-Royce
computer mainframe environment, at the time it to consolidate its capabilities in the area of
was perceived as the most comprehensive system industrial power. A further acquisition was made
available to businesses in the world, and it received in 1995 when Rolls-Royce bought the Allison
great interest from industries in the 1980s. Engine Company in the United States, thus
SAP saw the future potential for the delivery of enlarging the company’s presence in aero propul-
information to the end-user via the PC, so SAP sion and industrial gas turbines. The acquisition
reinvented and developed their product further by allowed Rolls-Royce a major foothold within US
developing a business solution for the client/server markets. The most modern family of engines is the
architecture environment, this became known as Trent series, which are also powerful three-shaft
R/3 and was released in 1992. In the 1990s SAP turbofan engines similar to the RB211, and are
and its R/3 solution would go on to become the used to power the Airbus A330, A340-500/600.
dominant ERP solution, and also become one of The Trent series of engines offer greater thrust,
the worlds biggest software houses. long range flight capabilities and economical
SAP R/3 applications are a range of software operating and maintenance costs. The Rolls-Royce
modules. They can be used either alone or Power Generation Market includes both electrical
combined to form business solutions. SAP state and nuclear power, which also includes marine
that their R/3 applications offer comprehensive applications, such as providing power plants for
functionality for all standard business needs within nuclear and naval vessels. Rolls-Royce is a truly
an enterprise. SAP R/3 uses a programming global business offering a range of first class world
language called advanced business application leading products. It has facilities over 14 different
programming (ABAP). countries and also offers first rate after sales
The following are SAP R3’s 12 application services, covering mechanical overhauls and spare
modules: financial accounting, treasury, controlling, part distribution. In March 1998 a new organisa-
enterprise controlling, investment management, pro- tional structure was adopted that recognised the
duction planning, materials management, quality strategy and the need for change to reflect
management, project system, human resource man- customer requirements.
agement, sales and distribution, and plant main-
tenance and service management. 5.2. The situations before ERP

Rolls-Royce used over 1500 systems before the

5. Rolls-Royce—case study ERP project was started, many of which were
developed internally by Rolls-Royce over the last
In this section, a case study conducted at Rolls- two decades. These legacy systems were expensive
Royce investigating the implementation of ERP to operate and difficult to maintain and develop.
(SAP) is discussed. The case study starts with They did not provide accurate, consistent and
introducing the company and its background, accessible data that was required for good and
presenting the status of IT before and after the timely decision-making and performance assess-
implementation of SAP, and giving the detail ment (e.g. delivery performance, quality metrics).
chronological phase of the implementation of SAP These ageing systems often did not lend themselves
in Rolls-Royce. Also, the research methodology is fully to a modern manufacturing environment.
discussed. The implementation of SAP in the Some of the legacy systems were so old that they
company and project risks is presented. had year 2000 compliance problems. Work within
Rolls-Royce was functionally orientated and
5.1. Company background various departments worked in isolation.
The last major manufacturing system to be
Rolls-Royce returned to the private sector in developed and implemented by Rolls-Royce
1987 and acquired Northern Engineering Indus- was MERLIN, which stands for mechanised
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evaluation of resources, logistics and inventory, In 1998 changes were made to flatten the
the system was basically a scheduling system which structural hierarchy. The customer focused busi-
ran on MRPII system principles. The system was ness units (CFBU) were made responsible for
developed in the 1980s and, although it was making sales deals within the various market
capable, it was prone to manual manipulation. segments. Whilst the operational business units
One particular down fall of the system was the lack (OBU) formed the manufacturing support for
of communication between individual sites. MER- producing the product, the Executive Group
LIN often had difficulty communicating with controls the whole business and makes decisions
another manufacturing system named IBIS, which on the overall direction of the company.
stands for inventory based instructing system.
IBIS was an older manufacturing system that 5.4. The implementation project
was used at the Bristol and Ansty facilities. Work
in progress was often transferred between sites and The ERP project consists of a management team
could not be tracked accurately, often causing of specialists from the external outsourcing com-
inventory and stock take problems. pany EDS. EDS also have the specialised talents of
An additional system named corporate cost SAP consultants. Within the project team are
accounting (CCA) was used to financially monitor specialist internal managers and staff that have
transactions, which covered pipeline inventory and vital knowledge of cross-functional business rela-
inter-site transport. Rolls-Royce also had a range tionships and experience of the old internal
of individual systems for controlling and monitor- systems. In conjunction with this team each OBU
ing commercial, financial and procurement func- has its own ERP planning team, which is
tions, these systems had problems interfacing with responsible for implementing working changes
each other, as they had different databases and file and training. The project implementation pro-
formats. The legacy systems did not allow Rolls- blems can be grouped into three areas of cultural,
Royce to establish direct, on-line communication business and technical difficulty.
with customers, partners and suppliers. In fact,
these systems did not support significant growth of 5.4.1. Cultural problems
the business and were not sufficiently agile to keep The implementation project team expected a
pace with the changing business environment. high acceptance of the system in areas that provide
just as good or better functionality than the old
5.3. IT at Rolls-Royce system. However some functions and processes
might not get the full appreciation the legacy
In 1996 Rolls-Royce formed a partnership with systems once had. The project team decided to
electronic data services (EDS). The Rolls-Royce resolve this by illustrating the improvements made
IT department was outsourced to EDS, which to the company as a whole, thus breaking the
meant that EDS were responsible for the develop- traditional segregation of OBUs and departments.
ment of the company’s IT systems as well as taking The original implementation plan was increased in
over the existing structure and providing adequate an attempt to address training and cultural
IT resources. This move was made in order to changes. Training took the form of organised
allow Rolls-Royce to concentrate its efforts on its seminars, which were split into two distinct groups
main area of expertise—the making and selling of of specialists and mass users. The specialist
aero engines. Rolls-Royce decided that a partner- training was carried out and conducted by SAP
ship with a world leading IT outsourcer would and was technically based. These specialist experts
benefit the company far more than designing and then in turn trained expert users. The remaining
maintaining their own IT systems. EDS were training for end-users was conducted internally in
chosen because of their substantial experience collaboration with EDS consultants. The training
within the aerospace industry. EDS also had the carried out within the seminars was supported by
responsibility for employing specialist consultants. demonstrations within the workplace, along with
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 257

information meetings and presentations to relay system. SAP named this unmodified software
information to all employees about the changes of implementation ‘Vanilla SAP’.
working practices. In all, more than 10,000 people
would have been trained. 5.4.3. Technical problems
The main technical problems that Rolls-Royce
5.4.2. Business problems has encountered have been with the accuracy of
SAP R/3 requires a fairly rigid business struc- data. The new system requires the retrieval of old
ture for it in order to work successfully. The data from the legacy systems that has to be
participants of cross-functional workshops soon normalised, screened and stored in a sensible data
understood that their working practices must be format within the new systems data repository.
adjusted in order to fit SAP, ultimately changing The duplication of data was a major concern that
the way Rolls-Royce does business. They achieved Rolls-Royce had to address. In some special areas
this by using an internal business process re- the old systems was kept running until such time as
engineering (BPR) programme. The programme they could be phased out by the new systems, and
consisted of four steps, the first involved drawing to do this EDS built interfaces between the
and mapping the current processes. The second systems. The CAD system used by Rolls-Royce
step involved identifying any problems or issues remained the same, as the process to alter the file
raised from the mapped process. The third step formats would be too expensive and require use of
involved applying some of these issues to a valuable resources that are needed for the core
demonstration of SAP, to identify potential implementation.
problems within the new system. The fourth step Rolls-Royce has nine principal business pro-
involved the re-mapping or modification of the cesses, which when taken together describe every-
processes in line with SAP. The modifications to thing the company does. Fig. 1 is a schematic
the Rolls-Royce business process meant that the representation of the business processes and the
SAP R/3 software need not be modified. Mod- interfaces.
ifications to the software would have been Rolls-Royce decided to adopt and utilise the
extremely expensive both in terms of implementa- SAP solution offered for the aerospace and
tion resources and the fact that newer software defence industry. The SAP aerospace and defence
versions would be difficult to install in a modified industry solution is the market leader in its

Build Create Resolve

Customer Customer Customer
Relationship Solutions Problems

Plan the Resource the Generate Fulfil

Business Business Orders Orders

Satisfy the Manage

Shareholder Cash

Fig. 1. Business process model.

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258 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

industry and is highly configurable for flexible excess of 2 Terabytes of disk space. The system
‘vanilla’ implementation. Predetermined imple- required almost 35 weekly MRP runs cascaded by
mentation points from the Rolls-Royce Steering plant. A UNIX server bridges the data from legacy
Committee and Implementation Team defined the systems and testing and training required an NT
release strategy for the project. Any future third server. The detail implementation model plan with
party software products must first be accredited by project time-scale is shown in Fig. 2.
SAP to safeguard the upgrade process and would
require a justified business case. Business reports 5.4.4. Phase 1 (strategy and direction)
that are generated by SAP have to be fully justified The first phase of the project was a short
in a business case, which follows a standard format intensive study to set the scope of the project
for internal use. Data entering the project has to be and provide an outline plan and costing. A
identified, validated, cleaned, loaded, archived and steering committee was formed to administer the
then maintained within a Data Warehouse. financial guidance of the project and a ‘ERP Core
Rolls-Royce have estimated that over 1000 Team’ was formed to control and oversee the
additional PCs will be required and the total cost actual implementation process.
for the network infrastructure was about two
million pounds. The company required over 6000 5.4.5. Phase 2
SAP licences for users across all the business. The During the second phase a detailed plan was
server was provided by Sun Microsystems and in created and a prototype system was installed. An

1998 1999 2000 2001

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

Phase 1
1

2 SAP
Phase ‘Go Live’
2
3

4 5
Phase
3
6

Key

Phase 1 1 Strategy & Direction

2 Planning Analysis & Convergence

Phase 2
3 Early Deployment

4 Wave 1 – Focus on Operations

Phase 3 5 Wave 1 – Pilot

6 Wave 2 – Focus on Assembly & Spares

Fig. 2. ERP implementation model with project time-scale.

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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 259

enterprise model was developed based on the completion of wave one was deferred for about 6
Rolls-Royce Allison model, and all the existing months. This has resulted in a knock-on delay to
projects within Rolls-Royce were drawn together wave two by a corresponding amount. The change
and merged. Many issues were addressed including in schedule was possible without a significant
the integration of Better Performance Faster increase in cost because the problems were
(BPF) initiatives. A series of workshops known addressed early enough in the programme. There
as ‘High Level Process Confirmation Workshops’ were four main reasons for the change:
took place, which involved over 200 line personnel
and the ERP core team, and took into considera-
* To give the line organisations more time to
tion the various business processes within the prepare, train and clean up data.
scope of the project. These workshops were closely
* To provide an additional 5 months period for
followed by ‘Business Simulation Workshops’, pilot running and early development of the
which involved approximately 300 line personnel system.
and were used to forge a strong relationship
* To provide additional time for the completion
between the ERP core team and line personnel of other pre-requisite projects being managed
and avoid possible pitfalls, such as initiative by BPF. Specifically the deployment of product
fatigue or lack of co-operation. Activities carried data manager (PDM) and shop floor data
out during the second phase of the project manager (SFDM) on which SAP is critically
included: dependent.
* To provide additional time for resolving diffi-
* Preliminary design review—developing a design culties with successful use of SAP at RR
and implementation strategy, defining the scope Allison.
of the project, and developing the business
process model. 5.4.7. Phase three (implementation)
* High level design review—analyse the enterprise This phase was too large to implement in one
model, and develop ‘Vanilla’ prototype. go, and thus was divided into two ‘waves’. Both
* Critical design review—detailed design and waves were concerned with the physical imple-
customisation of the prototype. mentation of the system and its architecture. The
* Implementation realisation—integration test- waves were also concerned with changing working
ing. practices within the company.
* Technical/operation review—user acceptance
testing. 5.4.8. Wave one
* Post implementation review—system deploy- This wave was concerned with the replacement
ment, systems conversion, user training before of legacy systems. IPM was also introduced for
the ‘Go Live’. new production projects during wave one. The
new manufacturing execution system, known as
During phase two the projects core structures shop floor data management (SFDM) was also
were identified. Integrated programme manage- introduced during wave one. The ultimate end to
ment (IPM) was also adopted for research and wave one was a SAP pilot project at one of Rolls-
development and would eventually cover the Royce facility. The pilot laid the foundation for
whole business. Additional activities included the the full ‘go live’ throughout the company about a
support of finance and staff work booking. Phase year afterwards. The first wave had the ultimate
two was completed at a cost of d5.2 million, within aim of providing new capabilities for gas turbine
two weeks of the plan. operations.

5.4.6. Project changes 5.4.9. Wave two

During phase two a significant change was made The second wave was approximately 1 year in
from the original timing of phase one, the duration, and was not operational until after the
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260 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

first wave finishes. The second wave was concerned then be used in ‘what if’ simulations before finally
with implementing engine assembly, spares, logis- being transferred to the master copy as the latest
tics and human resource elements within the SORB.
project. By this time the legacy systems was
switched to ‘view only’ as SAP becomes the 5.5.2. Suite 2
executive system. Once the new system shows a Plan and schedule the factory: This converts the
positive response the older systems was phased agreed schedule from suite 1 into a production
out. IPM completely covered the whole business plan and enables all the manufacturing units to
by the end of the second wave. plan capacity to produce the required components.
The production plan may include schedule
5.5. Changes to the existing system smoothing. Schedule smoothing is a process,
which converts erratic customer requirements into
During phase two, modifications were made to a consistent production plan that allows the
the legacy systems. These modifications were facility to operate efficiently on a regular pattern.
adopted in a series of suites. The operations businesses will have the responsi-
bility of holding excess inventory that is created by
5.5.1. Suite 1 schedule smoothing.
Plan the supply chain: This takes place as part of Schedule the shop: This converts the production
the corporate business planning activity with a 2–5 plan into a detailed shop plan. It generates when to
year horizon. A review was undertaken of all launch material (either raw material or part-
potential future sales, including engines and finished details) onto the shop floor, and when
spares, identifying the probable minimum and the material should meet identified stages of the
maximum levels. The supply chain capacity manufacturing process.
was compared to the range of possible sales
scenarios. 5.5.3. Suite 3
Master schedule key programmes: Suite 1 sup- Operate the factory: Suite 3 covers the control of
ports the sales and operating review board workflow through the shop from the initial
(SORB), which is a director level meeting, which generation of launch paperwork, right through to
strategically plans engine sale and factory capacity delivery of finished products. It gathers informa-
on a 2–5 year rolling forecast. The SORB makes tion on the booking of work at identified stage
decisions affecting changes to achieve capacity in points in the manufacturing process, and collects
terms of manpower, machines, technology, and operating data for cell level management. It
ultimately for factories to meet the potential sales controls inventory between the manufacturing
forecast. The SORB process has often been units and controls the flow of components through
referred to as the ‘Evaluation and Commitment the make process. Once SAP has become executive
Acceptance Program’. The SORB meet every 3 these suites will be replaced by SAP modules and
months to decide what has to be made and when. SFDM, which will handle and perform these
The SORB records baseline data from the previous tasks.
meeting and then identifies new changes. For The complete systems architecture for the
example if 20 engines were required last, it does project is extremely complicated, however for the
not necessarily mean that 20 were actually built, a purpose of this discussion a brief overview can be
particular manufacturing unit may have had seen in Fig. 3. The core business operations are
machine breakdowns, which could have effected supported by SAP and integrate with other
the amount of work leaving the factory. A copy of strategic software products (highlighted in brack-
the plan gets taken from the Project System ets). Rolls-Royce are using 11 out of 12 SAP
module within SAP and then the new requirements modules. They decided not to use the plant
are input into an inactive version of the SAP maintenance module as they already have an
module Demands Management. This copy can adequate system called MAXIMO (Fig. 4).
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 261

Plan the supply chain

Suite 1 APS – Enterprise Level

Master Schedule Key

Programmes

Plan & Schedule the

Factory
APS – Factory Level and
Suite 2
SAP

Schedule the Shop

Suite 3 Operate the factory SFDM and SAP

Fig. 3. The five box diagram of suite implementation.

5.6. The ERP pilot Saturdays and Sundays as well!’’—Core Im-

plementation Team Member (a).
A small-scale pilot of the system was run for 3
months and throughout this period, a facility The implementation of ERP has created two
known as number 4 shop, which was part of the new roles at Rolls-Royce, these key roles were:
transmissions and structures operations unit be-
came the central focus of attention for the whole * MRP controllers;
company. This facility was chosen for the pilot run * Capacity owners.
because the facility only produced 280 parts, and
material flowed into the facility at low volumes ‘‘We had to go through symmetric tests,
from external suppliers and internal operational aptitude tests, interviews, it was quite daunting
units. The purpose of the pilot was to demonstrate: really, I mean to think that here I am, quite
settled but I’ve got to make these moves. I’m
* business principles; told that I’ve got to spend X amount of time
* processes; around a PC, it’s a bit strange as I must spend
* procedures; around 80 percent of my time on the shop floor
* role definitions and behaviours; to day, and that’s going to change dramatically.
* software, hardware and data transfers. I will own the men and machines, the capacity
y’’—Core Implementation Team Member (b).
‘‘We initially looked at over 1000 part numbers,
identified which ones had a schedule against ‘‘An MRP Controller is going to be in charge of
them, its the ones that have a schedule that we the inventory, and getting the raw material in,
did the data clean up on, which came down to and talking to the supplier and the customer.
280 part numbers. If we had to do it across the But they’ve also got to release the material to
1000 part numbers we would never have got it the shop floor, and then release the material
finished. For each part number there are when its finished as a component to the
around about 30/40 operations, there had been customer.’’—Core Implementation Team Mem-
7 of us working full time on it, that’s included ber (c).
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262 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

Finance Programme Management Human Resources

Financial Core Organisation & Finance Research & Development Resourcing
Consolidation Structure Series Production Compensation & Benefit
(Hyperion) Asset Management Spares & Other Payroll
Accounts Payable Profit & Cost Accounting Health & Safety
Accounts Receivable Staff Work Booking Organisation Development
Bill of
Product & Inventory Accounting Employee Development
Materials
Profitability Analysis Pensions

Product & Process ERP (SAP R/3) Supply Chain Planning

Product Data Development Sales & Operations Planning
Management Assembly Configuration Demands Management
Material Integrated Business Processes &
Master Basic Component Configuration Master Production Scheduling
(Metaphase) Systems Applications
Data Assembly Process Planning Material Requirements Planning
Component Process Planning Forecasting & Provisioning
Supply Chain Optimisation

Procurement & Inventory Manufacturing & Assembly Order Management

Sourcing Execution Sales Order Administration
Procurement Manufacturing Execution
Inventory Management Assembly Operations Service Management
(Manufacturing) Tool Management
Product As-built Inventory Management Plant Management
Structure Data (Assembly)
Warehouse Management

Kits & Tools

Requirements Routings Work Work Status
Launch

Assembly Instruction & Control (CAPP) Manufacturing

Process Planning Execution (SFDM)
Execution

Facilities & Services

Management (MAXIMO)

Fig. 4. Systems applications architecture overview.

MRP Controllers and Capacity Owners were Once they’ve been trained and know how to
sent on a residential behavioural course for 2 use that piece of kit they will have it there
weeks and for most of them this was their first and then. The second thing to bear in mind
glimpse at how they would be working in the is to really understand what roles the user is
future. going to play in the pilot. This is to ensure
that we have the right access permission
‘‘We’ve got 20 users at Ansty, in the pilot and to correctly set-up for the user so they can use
connect those users we’ve had to install a lot of SAP correctly.’’—Core Implementation Team
fibre network throughout the Ansty site. Its Member (d).
such a huge task of delivering the infrastruc-
ture, that’s the reason why people have been so
frustrated, saying things like, I go live in 4 Systems testing and getting the user to accept
weeks and I haven’t got a piece of kit yet! the system were important roles undertaken in the
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 263

pilot. The following quotes give some insight: * Values between the systems were incorrect, so
comparisons were made on the values from the
‘‘Before the system can go-live the team needed legacy system with those on the new system,
to check that it works properly in their such as inventory levels and WIP.
operational environment. User acceptance * Transaction problems occurred from the first
training is all about buy off, we’re trying to MRP run, so comparisons were made, between
make sure that the ownership is with the the old and new systems, and corrections were
business not the core team. They have to say made.
we’re happy!’’—Core Implementation Team
Member (e). A second pilot was also carried out for non-
production purchasing. The second pilot ran
‘‘I thought that when we first started the executively, covering Derby-based purchasing of
programme it would be pretty black and white, ground support equipment. A third pilot also
finishing the unit testing, starting the integra- was run by the Airline Business. The third pilot
tion testing, starting the user acceptance testing, was non-executive, but designed to specifically
its not that simple! What you have are different explore the interplay between Metaphase PDM
bits of either configuration or bridges that you and SAP.
have to phase in at different parts of the testing
cycle. They cannot be missed but they cannot be
5.7. The ‘Go Live
finished in time to say, I’ve finished all unit
testing, I’ve finished all integration testing its
As the main ‘Go Live’ of the new system was
actually quite blurred.’’—Core Implementation
planned, the most difficult part of the cut over
Team Member (e).
process was in transferring the data from legacy
Loading clean data into the new system also systems. The shear volume of data that has to be
produced many difficulties. The following quotes transferred is far greater than any normal transac-
give some insight: tion load that will be carried out by the system
thereafter. In order for this process to be successful
‘‘Its not until you actually try and load the data, the data must be kept in a ‘stable’ state for a
get the data in the system and then hopefully let period of roughly 10 weeks. The initial data to be
it feed into SAP that you really start to transferred includes some transaction data and
understand that things aren’t quite right. We’ve master data, for example, lists of suppliers. If any
lost something like a week and a half so far changes occur to the data on the old systems after
trying to get the bill of materials into metaphase the transfer, they are logged and then passed
and then feed them into SAP.’’—Core Imple- through to the new system. The remaining data
mentation Team Member (e). was loaded in after the ‘Go Live’.
The next step during the ‘Go Live’ process
‘‘We are going to load into SAP about 2 percent
involved running the MRP system to initialise the
of the part numbers that we would actually load
whole system. Purchase orders and purchase
in wave one, and we are finding it incredibly
requisitions was not transferred from the old
difficult!’’—Core Implementation Team Mem-
system, instead the MRP run should create them
ber (d).
fresh. The whole ‘Go Live’ process took roughly 2
The initial problems experienced on ‘going live’ weeks to complete, and during this time the new
were: system was ‘off the air’.
Immediately after the ‘Go Live’ the existing
* User authorisation problems, such as, password legacy systems was switched to view only mode.
and user level clearance. The view only mode enabled comparisons to be
* Work was temporarily halted on the shop floor, performed between the old and new systems.
as route cards were unavailable. However, the legacy systems ceased to be executive.
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264 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

5.8. Project risks * The decision to implement Wave 1 separately

from Suite 3 may fail to integrate the new
The ERP Project at Rolls-Royce covers many systems.
different departments and many different topic * Airline Business After-sales may not be able to
areas, all of which have associated risks. In order analyse and manipulate inventory investment in
to address and take positive action to avoid failure stock target groups (MERLIN functionality
or potential errors the ERP implementation team which helps to control forecasting for
maintained and recorded in a great detail, a risk Airline Spares stock targets will be removed in
register. Every issue within the company, which Wave 1).
involves risk has been catalogued and continu-
ously reviewed. The risk register is very large,
however the Rolls-Royce ERP Intranet page offers 6. Summary and conclusions
a brief summary of some of the major risks:
Rolls-Royce has a large complex business
* The possible failure or inability to align goals process and the project has had to assess the
through conflicting directions within the orga- effects throughout the whole business, which is
nisation. equivalent to ten medium sized companies pulling
* The non-delivery or non-availability of reliable together as one. This has caused administrative
IT hardware and infrastructure both before and difficulties, particularly in the first phase of the
during implementation. project, whilst setting the strategy and overall
* The possible failure of providing inadequate direction. Rolls-Royce decided to make these
and ongoing support after implementation, radical changes to their business, in response to
from both Rolls-Royce and EDS. increased orders from the market place, and also
* The resistance of change to new process from the fact that ERP has become a standard
methods by management and supervision. solution world-wide within the Aerospace and
* Management and supervision may treat the Defence industry. The introduction of SAP R/3 at
project as merely an IT implementation, rather the facility in the USA was a major factor in
than change in process methods. influencing the UK implementation. Rolls-Royce
* Inadequately educating the workforce to oper- produce a range of quality world class turbine
ate the new system properly. engines, and have recognised that they must
* Possible failure to cut over to the new system change in order to compete effectively with their
through an inability to load data. competitors. Accurate information systems and
* Possible failure to cut over to the new system direct communication with suppliers are vital
through the inappropriate systems testing of when offering customers a committed promise to
volume, stress and data conversion. deliver.
* Possible failure to give ERP adequate priority Rolls-Royce has understood the business, cul-
due to the number of existing and ongoing tural and technical difficulties of such a large
business improvements. project, and has developed a solid core implemen-
* Maintenance difficulties may occur on bridged tation team. The team has used the specialist skills
legacy systems. of consultancy specialists. The partnership with
* The project may impact on company interim EDS has produced a sound architectural frame-
and end of year accounts. work for the project, thus allowing Rolls-Royce to
* The PDM project may not be sufficiently concentrate its efforts on manufacturing turbine
positioned in time with the ERP project. engines. A project of this size would never run
* Possible changes to kitting demand during ‘go smoothly and difficulties have occurred through-
live’ may stretch the new system and those out the implementation and will no doubt occur in
operating it on a learning curve beyond the future. The company have taken a different
capacity. approach to IT systems but have not let the project
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Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266 265

become just another IT system. The core imple- data is stored centrally and is extracted from
mentation teams have taken into account the operational, historical and external databases. The
needs of both the managerial and end-user. The data is first screened then edited and finally
following list contains just some of the problems standardised for future retrieval. The data is
encountered: stored in a logical user-friendly format. It allows
non-technical users to create database queries
* Matching the process to the software config-
allowing the simple retrieval of management
uration.
information for business intelligence and manage-
* Training people to accept change, and getting
rial decision making. The database continually
them to do business in a totally new way.
absorbs new data and integrates it with the
* Teaching employees to use modern IT equip-
previous data.
ment.
The full benefits of the project will not be fully
* Equipment not delivered on time, or delays in
experienced or achieved until the system becomes
technical equipment installation.
executive and has a period of stability, for at least
* Data clean up has been particularly time
a whole year. Once the system has become stable
consuming as many legacy systems have been
and users have had time to adjust to new working
involved.
practices the benefits of lower IT cost will become
* Training the behaviour of SAP users such as
visible. An immediate benefit that will be achieved
MRP Controllers and Capacity Owners.
by the system will be the ability to promise and
then deliver to the customer on time. This was
Many activities have taken place, which have something that the older systems could never
been vital to the overall success of the project, such achieve, as they often used due dates that were in
as: the past. SAP can only use current information.
The ability to deliver on time will improve
* Bridging the legacy systems and cleaning up
customer satisfaction and also improve customer
suspect data has given the company more trust
confidence, which should lead to an increase of
in its management of information.
orders in the future. The system will also improve
* Training senior management, particularly the
the relationship in the supply chain, as transac-
executive group, who are responsible for the
tions will be made easier via the use of Electronic
overall direction of the company and are not
Communications.
technically orientated.
The sustainability of enterprise information
* Managing effective relationships and leading
systems (EIS) during the post-implementation
teams in both technical and non-computer
period needs to be looked into. There is a lack of
based environments.
clear understanding about the strategic needs and
* Manufacture simulation exercises.
requirements for sustaining the effectiveness of
* Transactional training.
large-scale information systems after a period of
* Shop floor communication with line workers
relative stability following initial implementation.
was an exercise that occurred during the
Sustainability management of EIS is therefore a
implementation of suite 3. This required line
very important research dimension that needs to
workers to attend workshops to learn new PC
be explored to maximise the benefits of an
skills in order to book work.
expensive information system investment such as
ERP.
SAP guarantee that newer versions of their
software will upgrade SAP reports, whilst specially
created reports will require re-writing of the Acknowledgements
software. The future of the project will eventually
lead to the need for a Data Warehouse. A Data The authors are very grateful to two anony-
Warehouse is an integrated collection of data. The mous referees for their constructive and helpful
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266 Y. Yusuf et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 87 (2004) 251–266

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