Row TwoGeography
Row TwoGeography Ultimately, the business owner's view of location is geographic. Where do we do business? How do we communicate among these locations? What is the business content of those communications? Obviously, this is less of a concern if a company's entire operation is in one location, although the locations of customers and communications with them keep the issue of geography relevant. The issue of location has become more complex since the early 1980s. Before 1980, all data processing was done in centralized locations. This was because the economics of computing were such that it was cheaper to do it all on large, central computers. In about 1980, those economics changed radically . Mini-computers and personal computers made it reasonable for divisions to have their own computing facilities. Corporate information systems management resisted this, of course, because it threatened control that it had always exercised. As it happened , corporate management lost the battle, because the new economics were too persuasive. The issue remained, however, that some information still had to be communicated to management for business purposes. Now that economics didn't place that information there in the first place, it was necessary to define the business requirement for these communications. This was a new kind of problem. Now, with better understanding of the whole idea of system requirements and of the options for decentralization, it should be possible to conduct a more rational dialogue. Indeed, we are now in a position to ask the question previously ignored: What communications are required among offices to address the true functions of the business? The viable system considerations from Chapter 5 are important here. In examining a company's locations, it is important to ask the question: How much System One work is being done here? System Two?and so forth. The answers will have a profound influence on the kinds of systems and communications that should be built. Note, by the way, the difference between the concept of "location" and that of "site". A location (or "geographic area") is simply a place on the earth, like Cleveland, or Death Valley. It has a boundary, defined in terms of specific points. A site (also called a facility ) is a place with a purpose, such as a house, office building, factory, or ware house. One characteristic of a site, of course, is its location (although sometimes that can change), but site and location are not the same thing. (See page 119 for the data model of SITE and GEOGRAPHIC AREA .) In requirements analysis, we are primarily concerned with sites, but in describing them, we will make generous use of our knowledge of geography. There are many possible configurations of companies, reflecting the fact that there are many kinds of companies. Some of the general configurations of sites are:
Specific sites where the enterprise does business might include:
Headquarters and Field OfficesThere are variations on this theme, as described below, but ultimately the question of communications among sites is about the relationship of headquarters to its outlying sites. The nature of these communications can be understood in terms of Stafford Beer's viable system (described in Chapter 5). Systems Three, Four, and Five are typically in an enterprise's headquarters. They control the operational elements in the fieldSystems One and Two. The operational elements deal with the outside world and respond accordingly , feeding data about their performance back to the controlling units. If the data show an aberration, then the controlling system issues instructions to correct their efforts. Communication is essential for the feedback loop to work. If the headquarters and field offices are in the same place, this problem is nothing other than the set of management issues described in Chapter 5. If not, the communications links must be explicitly addressed in more detail. It is important to make sure that communication between the field and headquarters contains the information (variety) necessary for headquarters to evaluate the field facilities' performance. More often than not, these are in the form of financial reports , but they may also include other kinds of performance statistics. Similarly, communications from the headquarters to the field may contain some direct instructions, but more often they consist of policies, constraints, and operating conditions. These establish what in process control are called "set points" against which the operating elements' performance will be judged. The pre-1980 practice of also sending information to headquarters to be processed was for economic reasons (only headquarters could afford a computer) and not relevant to the viable system model. Production NetworkIn the specific case where manufacturing takes place in several facilities, communication among those facilities is essential. In terms of Mr. Beer's viable system, this is largely the province of System Twocoordinating the flow of resources to various placesbut System Three comes into play as well, in that communications are required for the overall management of the operation. System Two's role in production is to make sure that each production step is aware of the production demands from the next operation upstream, and that its requirements in turn are properly communicated downstream. At the sales point, there are forecasts of expected sales, which are translated into production requirements for the finished products. These in turn must be translated into demand for the first level of subassemblies. These then are translated into requirements that generate demand for the next level of subassemblies, and so forth. Where it is done well, this entire calculation typically is performed in a central materials management site, and the resulting production schedules are then communicated to the sites involved. This permits balanced use of inventory. The calculation is the same whether the production is all in one building or worldwide. Components that are in multiple sites, however, raise implications for the communication networks that will be required. For example, one pharmaceutical company had five major plants producing bulk pharmaceuticals and 26 plants packaging finished productsscattered all over the world. The logistics of bulk supply had to be managed centrally , with the instructions transmitted to all sites. The System Three requirement is about management's making a set of plants more productive by examining the way each plant is working and then recommending changes in appropriate policies, constraints, or operating principles. For example, a special case of a production network is an oil field. Numerous wells are scattered over the landscape, with both primitive and sophisticated means for monitoring them. Specifically, instruments may be attached to wells that are connected electronically to a central controlling computer, or alternatively, a worker may simply visit each well in his pickup truck and make observations. Either way, the data must be brought to the field office and analyzed , with proper steps then being taken to respond to circumstances. Distribution NetworkRequirements for communication among nodes of a product distribution network are similar to those for a production network. Again, System Two makes sure that supply and demand are coordinated, while System Three ensures that the inventory of the set is optimal, even if this means that the inventory in one site may not be. Research NetworkIn one pharmaceutical company, new compounds are identified and research is planned at corporate headquarters in the American Midwest. The actual research, however, is conducted via clinical trials held at subsidiaries all over the world. This, of course, means extensive communication of research protocols (instructions as to how to carry out the research) to the field. Data are collected at each site, and initial reviews of the data are conducted there. Some research is conducted centrally, as well, with data that are collected and reviewed there. From the outset headquarters wants to be able to see the data for preliminary analysis, but the volume required is such that the data don't have to reside there. At a specific point in the process, however, use of the data in the field diminishes, and serious analysis begins at headquarters. Remote sites still have access to the data, so that they can respond when questions arise. When a project was defined to address these requirements in the late 1980s, the economics of database management systems at the time suggested that the data be captured in the field with remote access to them being available from headquarters. Then, for the second part of a study, the data were physically moved to headquarters, with remote access then being provided to field sites. The economics could change in the future, requiring changes to the physical architecture of the system. The requirements for access would not change, however. Customer LocationsIt is common for an enterprise to have to keep track of its customer locations. Maps are a useful mechanism for this. A company may be concerned with locations outside its operational offices. For example, an automobile insurer must keep track of the locations where accidents happen. This might mean recording accidents on a map. The Los Angeles Film Board, as another example, issues permits to production companies, allowing them to make movies, commercials, and the like on the streets of Los Angeles. This requires extensive mapping facilities to define the exact territory for each permit. The Set of SitesAll of these examples show that the set of sites where the enterprise operates is significant in defining the nature of that operation. The last pair of examples, by the way, shows that site may be an issue not only for placement of future systems, but also for the content of these systems.  |
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 129