Abstract:

Objective- This is a teaching case, which is developed based on secondary facts and figures available in public domain, aimed at illustrating importance of Information Systems (IS) in a business context. The case is about a business (the company name is INDASA which is situated in Portugal and is a well known face in Portuguese abrasive industry) that wants to gain an edge in global markets. The company is facing plethora of problems like high labor cost, single factory meeting the needs of worldwide supplies, etc. This case portrays the journey of INDASA through the implementation of its new IS platform (cmNavigo). This case gradually builds up the problem by carefully guiding the journey from the beginning of the millennium to early 2012 and lists the major factors affecting it. The case also highlights the various challenges and alternatives that Indasa have in hand and finally carefully analyzes the alternatives and how the implementation of the IS platform has bring about the changes in the firms bottom-line figures has been contrasted with previous year findings/figures.

Design / Methodology/ Approach-The present article is based on secondary facts and figures collected from open-source and public domain. This case is written in typical teaching case style and format where chronologically the problem formulation, discussion, analysis and result stages have been carved out.

Findings- Effective implementation of manufacturing execution system (cmNavigo ) has been linked with efficient and sustainable growth and better sales figures. This study is based on secondary data and hence needs no further validation. 

Practical implications-This paper can inspire managers and experts in manufacturing sector under similar business backdrop and give them inspiration and motivation, rather better insight in terms of what is the right way and right time for implementing information system and also help them understand a lot of linked whys and hows. However caution should be followed because case by case analysis and detailed understanding of the situation should be antecedent to this step before indiscriminate copying of the said model as described in the case. Moreover further authentication based on primary data from similar firm-specific example might make the managerial understanding more robust.

Originality/Value- The paper includes practical real-life case based findings and situations which makes the entire learning effort more understandable and interesting for both academics as well as the industry managers.

Key words: Information Systems, Manufacturing execution system, Case study.