Question
what are the types of information systems of Ford motors?
Answer
Ford Motor Company is a leading automobile manufacturing company with operations across more than 200 countries. The vastness of Ford’s operations made the company turn to information technology to boost efficiency. Consequently, Ford deployed three major information systems to integrate its activities.
The Ford Production System (FPS)
The FPS is an enterprise system that manages all production related activities. These include the actual production processes and the procurement of supplies. Apart from ridding the company’s production lines of unnecessary processes, procedures, and resources, it also handles staff and supplier management. The FPS is a distributed system that manages Ford’s production lines across the world, thus bringing consistency in all the company’s subsidiaries. FPS enables Ford to enforce the same production standards across the world.
The Ford Retail Network (FRN)
Initially, Ford sold its motor vehicles through independent dealers who competed against each other instead of challenging other manufacturers. To curb this, Ford decided to buy out all Ford dealerships and invested in the development of an expert system that focuses on delivering products to clients. The system links all Ford dealerships, removing the barriers that were previously experienced with private dealers. FRN tracks stock movement, allowing Ford to supply new stock on time.
Order to Delivery System (OTD)
The Order to Delivery System is a decision support system designed to expedite the delivery of Ford cars to clients. The company felt that the initial sixty-day waiting period was making it lose some customers, thus it invested in a system that integrated the FPS and FRN. OTD manages orders from production to delivery – clients can also track their orders. The system reduced delivery times to fifteen days as it also allows dealers to source cars from other dealerships in case they do not have the models their clients want.
