MIS in Distributed Manufacturing

This assignment delves into the crucial role of Management Information Systems (MIS) within a distributed manufacturing environment. It examines how MIS facilitates efficient planning, scheduling, and resource allocation across geographically dispersed production sites. A key focus is on addressing the inherent security challenges posed by this decentralized structure, exploring best practices and technologies to safeguard sensitive data and maintain operational integrity.

Running head: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM MIS
Management Information System MIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Part 1: Short Answer Questions.................................................................................................2
Answer to question 1..............................................................................................................2
Answer to question 2..............................................................................................................2
Answer to question 3..............................................................................................................2
Answer to question 4..............................................................................................................3
Answer to question 5..............................................................................................................3
Answer to question 6..............................................................................................................4
Part 2: Case Study......................................................................................................................5
Answer to question 1..............................................................................................................5
Answer to question 2..............................................................................................................6
Answer to question 3..............................................................................................................6
Part 3: Case Study (Piloting Procter & Gamble from Decision Cockpits)................................8
Answer to question 1..............................................................................................................8
Answer to question 2............................................................................................................10
Answer to question 3............................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

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Part 1: Short Answer Questions
Answer to question 1
The classmates or the students can be able to provide an analysis of the competitive
rivalry among the five suppliers of computer brands. This is due to the little differentiation in
the supplier power of the personal computer. The rivalry also occurs due to the costing
correlated with changing suppliers, the other reason is the buyer power that originates from
the price sensitivity of the users or the customers (Patterson and Hennessy 2017). The other
reason is the low costing associated with switching to other personal computers.
Figure 1: Business Strategies
(Source: Bharadwaj et al. 2013)

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Figure 2: Product or Services
(Source: Kim, Cohen and Netessine 2017)

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Figure 3: Methods for Identifying Competitive Advantage
(Source: Goetsch and Davis 2014)

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Figure 4: SWOT Analysis
(Source: Bohari, Hin and Fuad 2017)
Answer to question 2
Google glass can be a threat to one's privacy as there is no authentication or PIN
associated with the Google Glass. The hackers have discovered the vulnerabilities within, the
Google Glass has the ‘root' capability that the hacker can enable by connecting it to the
computer and executing some commands into it (Hong 2013). The hackers thus can hack the
Google Glass’s output and can monitor what the user or the owner of the Glass is viewing or
watching.

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Figure 5: P3P
(Source: Hong 2013)
Figure 6: Wi-Fi Security Challenges
(Source: Hong 2013)

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Answer to question 3
Authentication is the procedure of confirming the identities of the users. At first, the
system will have to identify the authentication of one user, then the system can detect the
access privilege for the user (Killian et al. 2014). Authorization is the procedure catering the
users the permission to grant access to an enterprise system and access the files and access
the storage space of database of the enterprise.
Fig 7: Authorization and Authentication
(Source: Killian et al. 2014)

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Figure 8: Spreading of Malicious Software
(Source: Killian et al. 2014)
Answer to question 4
Executive Support System (ESS) is a software that helps to convert an organisation's
data into reports. These reports are utilised by the management team to assess the billing,
staffing, scheduling and cost accounting. Cambridge Systematics use the ESS to encourage
the investment planning procedures for the Ministry of Transportation.
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is the document which defines the effects of a
proposed action on the environment (Elam 2013). This is basically the documentation which
provides the general overview of the entire business process in form of documentation.

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Figure 9: Types of System in Organizations
(Source: Elam 2013)
Answer to question 5
E-tailer
E-tailer involves a retailer which sells products or goods by means of electronic
transactions over the Internet. An example is Amazon.

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Figure 10: E-Trailer graph
(Source: Elam 2013)
Figure 11: Example of Retail Sales Distribution
(Source: Elam 2013)
Market creator
The market creators utilize the Internet technology to develop a market including
buyers and sellers altogether. An example is eBay, Inc.
Content provider

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The content provider controls gaining access to the primary repository of data over
the Internet. A content provider is determined to be utilized by some other application
programs that access the provider with the utilization of a provider-client object (Guo et al.
2015). The provider clients along with the providers together provide secured data access.
Figure 12: Value Chain
(Source: Guo et al. 2015)
Answer to question 6
Vacuum Express must adopt the information technology. They must keep in mind
their budget and should develop a basic website, the customers will know the existence of the
company and along with that they know the products they are selling and the price range, it
will help them certainly to increase the sales (Pei, Paswan and Yan 2014). Though initially,
they will have to pay heavy for the development of the website, the information technology
will certainly benefit them in the long run.

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Part 2: Case Study
Answer to question 1
1.a. UPS has taken a significant approach and has adopted the IT services for company's
good. They have taken the initiative to attach a bar-code label to the trucks by which they
ship their products. The MIS infrastructure includes the worldwide website, user-friendly
software, communication systems and the and data management software (Mazzucato 2016).
All the information details of the electronic label get transmitted to the central computer
system of the enterprise from by utilizing the handheld devices like Delivery Information
Acquisition Device (DIAD). All this information is then processed, recorded. All the
information helps to monitor the details of the delivery.
1.b. UPS can track the trucks all the time, in turn, tracking the truck drivers all the time, thus
the drivers will be under constant monitoring. UPS can track each and every move the truck
takes and that can violate the privacy of the drivers, the drivers may not want to disclose the
details (Schwalbe 2015). It may happen due to any natural calamities they can be late
delivering the packages, also they can take a different route for shortcuts and for road
blockages, also they can halt somewhere for any personal reasons. However, they have to
explain the things every time to the seniors of UPS. Thus UPS is an ethical dilemma whether
to track trucks or not.
The security breaches can occur due to the hackers’ attack, if that happens the hackers
can know the business procedures of UPS. The entire tracking department may falter due to
attack. The track drivers may get confused and the whole delivery system can get disrupted.
Answer to question 2
2.a. The main challenge associated with wireless networking is the security challenge. Uber
must ensure that their data network is secured enough, if the data of the company gets

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breached, then thousands of customers’ personal data will be hacked and their privacy will be
compromised, also the drivers drive cars based on the maps provided over the Internet
(Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta and Lanvin 2013). The maps may shoe some dispute results due to the
attack and that can disrupt the entire network, in turn, disrupt the overall operations of the
enterprise.
2.b. Market segmentation is the procedure involving division of customers into multiple
groups. Uber mainly targets the urban customers. The customers those who live in distant
villages or forest areas or near the country boundaries are out of scope and these segments are
not included by Uber. The Google map or similar other maps generally do not show the exact
locations and exact pathways of those distinct regions, also the roads are bad and there are
threats from robbers and thieves and other forms of physical security.
Figure 13: Competitive Rivalry
(Source: Lecture Notes)

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Answer to question 3
3.a. Amazon is applying information system to facilitate the e-commerce business. Amazon
offers numerous functionalities like ‘Recommendations for you', ‘Related items you have
viewed', ‘Inspired by your shopping trends', ‘Wishlist', ‘Saved for later' for the customers.
The sellers also get appreciated by feedbacks and ratings thus they can get benefits and
reputations as well. They also have the best return policy, the customers who are not happy
with the product can return and can get the full refund. The products they sell are being
categorized and that makes the searching of products simple (Bloom et al. 2014). The reviews
from the customers play an important role, thus Amazon get to know about the product and
the sellers and that ease them to take the best effective decision. They also recommend
similar products to the customers thus help them to increase their sales more. These are
strategies Amazon follows while conducting online retail business.
Amazon has developed web version of the site and also a mobile app which offers the
same functionality as the web-based site (Jing et al. 2014). The page speed loading is crucial
for a business that is why they focus heavily on the page buffering so that the customers can
get full shopping satisfaction, in this way the information technology is helping their
business.
3.b. Amazon has introduced a new business ‘Amazon Go'. The ‘Amazon Go' is the procedure
where the customers check in, grab the product they want and just check out. Once they
check out, Amazon sends the bill. The name and details of the products they pick up are
stored in the cloud and the bill is processed according to the cloud data and lastly, the bill is
sent to the customers (Sandberg, Amin and Johansson 2015). The entire online retailing
website and ‘Amazon Go’ both are executed on the Amazon AWS cloud platform. Their

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innovation and advanced secured customer service are attracting large customers from every
corner of the world.
Fig 2: Amazon Go
(Source: Persico et al. 2015)
Part 3: Case Study (Piloting Procter & Gamble from Decision Cockpits)
Answer to question 1
Management issues
The management information system is associated with the management behaviour,
human resource management and the strategy.
The issues that are involved and that needs to be detected are:
i. Human resource management: The human resource management is associated
with the training, the training of employees of the enterprise so that they can cater maximum
productivity and the compensations (Weiss 2014). The employees must get trained to adopt
the relatively new information technology and new tools to enhance business operations.

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ii. Strategy: The sensitive data of the enterprise must not get leaked and the
competitors should not access those data as well. The sensitive data or the personal data
obtained as a result of data mining should be handled by managers and the managers must
take the decision.
iii. Management behaviour: The management behaviour deals with the development
of quality leaders those having the quality of taking the best decision and the best decision in
time.
Organization issues
The information system of any organization is associated with the hierarchy of the
organization, the political interest team, business culture and process and the functional
specialities. As P& G has decided to adopt the IT technology, that is why they must consider
the management issues associated with the IT technology and they are-
i. The Functional specialities- P & G requires backing up of the functional
specialities in the IT department (Schwalbe 2015).
ii. Business Processes- The business processes must get changed and must be
relevant to the new initiative taken by the enterprise.
iii. Culture- A new culture must be developed for the business culture and the
workers of the enterprise must get adapted to the culture needs.
Technology issues
The information technology of any enterprise consists of data management
technology, networking and telecommunications technology and hardware and software
components. The configuration of the Decision Cockpits, Business Sphere and Business

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Sphere in P&G assists in changing the way it accumulates data and process data. For this
reason, the technology issues associated must be detected within that are associated with
networking, networking issues must be resolved to support the solutions, issues associated
with the computer hardware must be addressed as the software must get complied with the
hardware, the issues associated with software must be detected as the software programs must
be updated regularly (Bryman. and Bell, E., 2015). The issues associated with the data
management technology must be detected as well since the data management technology is
associated with storing and accumulation of data.
Answer to question 2
Business Sufficiency
The business sufficiency helps to predict the market share of P&G and the associated
key performance matrices ranging from a period of six months to one year. Various analysis
models help to know the exact scenario of the current market and the exact scenario of the
enterprise with relevance to the current market share. The effectiveness of the tool is based on
the analysis model and they are as follows-
The "why" models showcase data sales data at the product line, country border and
the territory line and the store levels along with the drivers, for example, consumer
consumption and the advertising of the products (Bocken and Short 2016). It also highlights
the factors associated with particular economic data at the country levels as well as the
regional levels.
The “action” showcases the path that the enterprise P&G can undertake by adjusting
the product mix, pricing and the advertising to react to the predictions.

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That is why Business Sufficiency can assist the enterprise, P&G’s CEO and the
executives to detect and predict the quality of products and the markets which are responsible
for the sixty percent of the sales. The tools cater the visualization of data that showcases
changes both in the market share and the sales (Bocken and Short 2016). The Business
Sufficiency programs also help in more detailing of data, in turn, helps the executives to
flourish the business.
Business Sphere
The Business Sphere is developed and powered by P&G’s GBS popularly known as
P&G’s Global Business Services (GBS). It provides the data environment or the data
platform which encourages effective decision making by enhancing real-time business
information (Manna 2016). There are numerous algorithms and analysis models that are
associated with the Business Sphere and it facilitates the store level, product line and the
country boundary and territory level and it also assists in the monitoring trends like proper
respond to advertising and properly respond to consumer consumption around specific
regions and countries (Beach and Lipshitz 2017). The Business Sphere provides the tools
which facilitate the top managers to take an effective decision by conducting video-
conferencing and in this way the managers can detect the problems occurring within and can
take the best decision that can enrich the business activities. P&G currently has around fifty
Business Sphere all around the globe.
The Decision Cockpits
The Decision Cockpits are capable to provide the data sources related to market to the
users and the customers. The cockpits generally act as dashboards that display the readable
charts for the users or the customers. The users can know the latest status and trends about the
current market (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015). There are lots of features incorporated into it and

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the features are sending of alerts automatically at the time of occurrence of some meaningful
or useful events. The statistical analysis, the control charts helps in the mining of more and
more data. Decision Cockpits caters a platform where all the real-time business data can be
found, all the employees can able to focus on the effective decision to flourish the business.
Answer to question 3
P&G utilizes the ‘Distributed development’ model that enables adoption of specific
tools that is required for the enterprise to flourish and grow. P&G by adopting the IT
technology in their premises can get the desired growth and the desired outcome. In this way,
they can get a competitive advantage. The Business Sphere, Business Sufficiency and the
Decision Cockpits have been elaborately defined in the study and these can be quite useful
for the managers in taking the best decision. The systems are bound to provide products and
solutions with those are cost-effective. These systems can make sure that the accurate data
can be drilled and all these systems can help the management team to take the best effective
decision for the business embellishment.

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