Case Study Honam Petrochemical's Quest for Better Management Reports

INTRODUCTION

Established in 1976, LOTTE CHEMICAL has been solidifying its position by localizing cutting-edge petrochemical technologies and concentrating its efforts on the steady development of technologies. Merged KP Chemical and changed corporate name to LOTTE CHEMICAL.

LOTTE CHEMICAL’s Yeosu, Daesan, and Ulsan plants boast of the largest scale of domestic and international operations. The company has accomplished vertical systematization with respect to raw materials and products through steady plant and business expansion as well as production of basic petrochemical raw materials and products such as olefin and aromatics. Among the high-quality products produced by LOTTE CHEMICAL through its efficient processes are ethylene, HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP, functional resin, EG, SM, PIA, PET, etc. Moreover, the LOTTE CHEMICAL Research Institute in Daejeon is establishing a solid foothold in the domestic petrochemical field through the steady development of new products. LOTTE CHEMICAL’s products are being distributed to 152 countries around the world. With the acquisition of Pakistan’s PTA in 2009, Artenius in the UK in 2010 and Titan Chemical Corp., LOTTE CHEMICAL is now able to efficiently supply excellent products to an increasing number of countries.

       

                                                                                           

The company is further accelerating its efforts to strengthen its global competitiveness by establishing overseas branches in Hong Kong, Russia, and USA, along with the sales corporation in China for active sales activities both in domestic and abroad. As Asia’s top chemical company, LOTTE CHEMICAL will become a global chemical company that genuinely cares for the improvement in the quality of humanity and a balance with the environment.

Question 1: List and describe the information required of HPC's new management system. What problems was the new system designed to solve?

Information Requirement	Problems was the new system designed to solve
Reliable report	Report that are able to accurately measure management performance and provide useful, accurate information for increasing sales and reducing costs
Utilize data	-Report must up to date not need to sanitized to “look better” to senior management
Fast report	Anytime access on the report any where and anytime
Enterprise wide visibility	Can access and share the data easily across the various business unit and functions

Question 2: To what extend were “ people” problems affecting management decision making at HPC? What were some of the management, organization and technology issued that had to be addressed by the new system? How did system's designer make the system more 'people- friendly'?

-To what extend were “ people” problems affecting management decision making at HPC?

Individual managers were processing and manipulating the data to make their departments look better to senior management. The report data were somewhat stale and presented only on periodic  basic. Executives at he chemical firm wanted access to the data before they went through manipulation or processing. They   didn’t want each department’s own interpretation report thus delay the report to management. The executives wanted anytime access to the most timely data but they did not want to be overloaded with unnecessary data so they  could focus on the “watch-up  indicators”

-What were some of the management, organization and technology issued that had to be addressed by the new system?

Up to date information can be shown during the meeting to ensure all discussions and decision making are based on the consistency and timely view of the data. An executives can access the data at anytime to get a more accurate and timelier picture of how their organization is performing without any outside interpretation. No longer do top level decision makers i.e. to send their staff members on data-hunting excursions. The staff should know data is available and how to get it to expedites their decision making process. The system should be more user friendly.

How did system's designer make the system more 'people- friendly'?

• Web access from multiple location. 
• Required little training on how to use the system. 
• Well designed– user friendly screen and data entry forms. 
• Simple and easy to updates. 
• Easy to troubleshoot Efficient

Question 3 : What role did end user play in developing HPC's new system? How didi the projects team make sure users were involved? What would have happened to the project if they had not done this?

What role did end user play in developing HPC's new system? How didi the projects team make sure users were involved?

a) Interview and discuss with department involved

• IT organization started by asking executives to list existing report they were received and to access the usefulness of each.
• To list existing reports, executives were asked if there were additional report od data from which of their organizational group were benefit. The dialogue proved very helpful in developing the right set of reports and dashboard for executives
• Meeting with executives at different location where the system was being rolled out to received any users requirement.

b) Campaign

• Project team encourage users to start working with the new system
• Discussion and explain with executives regarding the system benefit.
• Continuous campaign and awareness program to executives to ensure their use the system effectively

c) Benchmark with others and develop strategy

• Benchmarks with other companies in the industry that can provide a good look at what data brings to most value.
• Discussion with executives about benefits of the new systems as well as how to use it.

What would have happened to the project if they had not done this?

•  Less refine data as required by the users and for management decision making.
• It will create unpleasant experience for the end user should there is any hick up.
• Inaccurate or untimely data flowing into executives dashboard.

Question 4 : What other step did HPC's take to make sure the system was successful?

Phase approach

Rather than pushing a new system into executives in the ERP life cycle ERP software and confident with the quality of the report

Emphasized benchmark

Emphasized the important of benchmarking before designing and implementing an executive facing system

Modern interface & mobile access

Executives can immediately accessing report and dashboards on daily, weekly and monthly basic. Mobile devices providing anytime, anywhere access to the new systems

Question 5: What types of system-building methods and tools did HPC use for building its system?

Type of system-building methods

Tools did HPC use for building its system

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

-A drag and drop visualization tool designed to create interactive analytics for powerful, personalized dashboard. -To make the data easily accessible, the system displayed a very intuitive web-based user interface. -Used for performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis and enterprise information management. -Provide self-service access to data from databases and excel-spread-sheets. -An ad hoc query, reporting and analysis tools that is used to create queries or use existing reports, format retrieved information and perform analysis to understand trends and root cause.

Question 6 : What were benefit of the new system? How did it change the way Honam ran its business? How successful was this system solution?

Benefit	Change the way	Successful system solution
Unbiased Data	Executives no longer are limited to sanitized scale data in an outdated presentation format.	Accurate data
Timelier decisions	Reduce time to collect, process and track data for decision making. Delivers timely information and various analytics to end users.	Efficient result & right decision making
Improved business competitiveness	Ensure consistency of information and establishes structure for global sharing of information.	Increase business competitiveness through global used of information system.
Improved accessibility	Display data via management, cockpits, dashboard or widgets. Provides unstructured .to ensure readability	Get up to date data and easy to prepare a report