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1         Project Plan

1.1       Executive Summary

This project is to implement EDI function between China Factory’s MFG/PRO and Hong Kong Office’s SAP. The scope includes the ordering messages, invoicing message and accounting message. The project is planned to start in Dec 2001 and target to complete in Jan 2002.

1.2       Introduction and background

HK OFFICE has implemented EDI function for several years to support the exchange of information between the factory and the Sales office for the export business. These include ordering, invoicing and accounting EDI messages. The EDI interface function is mainly to integrate MFG/PRO and SAP System, which is the Sales Order Processing system. As current operation, the China Factory export sales orders from SAP are received by HK OFFICE first, and then HK OFFICE internally transfers the order to China.

It has been decided that in order to improve the operation performance, the location that ships the goods out, should receive the sales orders from and invoice direct to the customer instead of going through HK OFFICE. With such in mind, it is necessary to implement EDI capability in China for exchange of order and invoice messages between MFG/PRO and SAP.

The new EDI capability will also be used for the capture of the domestic sales orders and the corresponding transmission of invoices to the China Sales Dept. Modifications will be made in the MFG/PRO import program to identify the type of the orders and transfer to the site, “domestic” or “export”, for proper processing.

1.3       Business needs/opportunities

The following needs / opportunities can be identified:

  • Simplify the order processing and invoicing cycle and make it more direct between factory & Sales Dept. This shortens the lead time to order receiving and invoicing between SAP and China MFG/PRO System
  • Reduce the EDI loading at the month-end in Hong Kong by spreading out between the two sites, Hong Kong and China to reduce the last minute booking to SAP. This requires China handles their own (China) orders, and HK OFFICE handles all others factory orders from SAP for production in Hong Kong and China.

1.4       Business case

1.4.1        Performance improvements

  • Reliable & actual ordering information in China through EDI
  • Faster response between SALES DEPT and factory customer service people
  • China can share the EDI experience from HK OFFICE in term of knowledge, troubleshooting and other ad-hoc support. Then, within our group, we can have more backup support in EDI area across HK OFFICE & China sites.

1.4.2        Financial case (cost/benefit analysis)

The implementation cost includes T&D EDI set-up cost, MFG/PRO customisation cost and Chinese Accounting Module customisation cost. This cost estimation is based on the information received from AtosOrigin HK OFFICE & China as below. Secondly, it also includes travelling cost of HK OFFICE IT, F&A and Logistics S&P personnel to be on-site to transfer knowledge and support the implementation.

The cost estimation is also based on the assumption that the T&D encode and decode mapping programs currently used in HK OFFICE will be reused in China without any further modification.

Totally initial investment:    xxx

Totally yearly running cost:   xxx

1.4.3        Business Risks

It is expected that all of the business benefit will be realized if the project is properly executed. Should the project fail, the impact to the operation will be that the EDI interface between the SAP and MFG/PRO will go through HK OFFICE as before. Under this fallback situation, the Sales requirement on China EDI will be failed to fulfil.

1.5       Feasibility

1.5.1        Organisational feasibility

  • HK OFFICE has already been using EDI function for several years to support export business. There has been accumulated a wealth of experience on both users and IT for management and use of the EDI between MFG/PRO and SAP. This experience and knowledge could be easily transferred to China in a short period of time.
  • Site IT and users are now getting more familiar and understanding of the system and be able to expand the current scope of the functionality beyond to include EDI. It is believed that with support from HK OFFICE in the set-up of the facility, China factory will be able to manage the operation in a proper manner.
  • The technology available to operate EDI with the functionality needed is readily available. It has been used in HK OFFICE many years ago and also been used by couple of JV in China.
  • HK OFFICE will transfer the knowledge, provide guideline, and help China colleagues to implement the facility.

1.5.2        Technological feasibility

1.5.3        Social feasibility

Social aspects that will need Management and planning attention as:

  • The EDI function is more rely on the technology rather than manual operation. As error occurs, IT people will play an important role on the troubleshooting. Hence, delicate IT resource is necessary in order not to impact to operation.
  • Change of the current way of working and changeover plan should not be underestimated.
  • The Management will have to remind and motivate the people involved.
  • To automatic exchange of order and invoice data between MFG/PRO System and SAP order processing system in order to support the direct invoicing from China factory for export sales.
  • To implement EDI function in China Factory in order to integrate between MFG/PRO System and SAP order processing system.

1.6       Business Goal

1.7       Business Objectives

1.8       Scope

The scope for the China EDI function will be the same as those currently available in Hong Kong MFG/PRO and includes the following message types:

  • OR10 for order creation (Incoming to MFG/PRO)
  • OR30 for order changing (Incoming to MFG/PRO)
  • OR33 for order confirmation (Outgoing from MFG/PRO)
  • IV01 for invoicing (Incoming to & Outgoing from MFGPRO)
  • RA01 for payment  (Incoming to & Outgoing from MFG/PRO)
  • RA02 for statement (Incoming to & Outgoing from MFGPRO)

1.8.1        Business processes covered

In addition to the implementation of the above mentioned messages types, it is required to set up auto-schedule jobs for those frequently used process such as OR10, OR30, OR33 & IV01 in the MFG/PRO system. However, it should have an email alert function in case any processing error occurs, similar to the existing function in HK OFFICE.

1.8.2        Geographical scope

HK OFFICE has implemented EDI function for several years. The scope and function of EDI implementation in HK OFFICE and China should be the same. The local IT should be responsible for the front-line support, i.e. HK OFFICE-IT for HK OFFICE-EDI and China-IT for China-EDI.

1.8.3        Sites and users per site

  • China Factory is the implementation site of this project.
  • Key users will come from China Logistic Dept, China F&A Dept, and Planners.

 

1.8.4        Total throughput time

The total lead-time of the project is estimated for 2 months to be completed by the end of January 2002 assuming the project could be started in early December this year.

The following is the macro timelines for the project and will be refined once the project is in motion.

Approval of the project proposal & funding                          Week 0

Formation of Project Team                                             Week 1

Development of a detailed project plan                          Week 1

Finalization of the routing table design and content                      Week 1

Finalization of the contract with Consultant on T&D set-up         Week 1

Finalization of contract with Consultant on MFR/PRO changes           Week 2

Consultant T&D Set-up                                                  Week 2

Commence MFG/PRO programs modification by Consultant & IT      Week 2

Develop EDI operation process & procedures                       Week 2

Commence testing of MFG/PRO modifications                    Week 4

Consultant T&D testing                                                         Week 5

EDI testing with key partners                                         Week 6

User training & preparation for cut-off to production            Week 8

Post-Implementation Review                                         Week 10

1.9       Project Ownership

1.9.1        Business management ownership

The project organisation should be setup as :

1.9.1.1       Project Owner (Time and Money)

Tasks / responsibilities:

  • To provide funding to the overall project
  • To allocate required manpower resources
  • To make go or no-go decision

1.9.2        Project assignment and accountability

1.9.2.1       Project manager

Tasks / responsibilities:

  • Setting up of Project Organisation
  • Project management on a day to day basis
  • Overall Project co-ordination
  • Linking pin with the Project Sponsors
  • Monitor Project progress
  • Monthly report to management about the progress status of the project
  • Facilitate the creation of test facilities

1.9.2.2       China Logistic Team

Tasks / responsibilities:

  • Analysis & provide solution on any logistic relative issue
  • Setup procedure of handling the China logistic matter
  • Co-ordination within Logistic team
  • Coordinate with external SAP end-users for conduct the testing and implementation

1.9.2.3       China F&A Team

Tasks / responsibilities:

  • Analysis & provide solution on any F&A relative issue
  • Setup procedure of handling the F&A matter
  • Coordination within China F&A team
  • Coordinate with external SAP end-users for conduct the testing and implementation

1.9.2.4       Logistic Team

Tasks / responsibilities:

  • Analysis & provide solution on any logistic relative issue
  • Setup procedure of handling the logistic and commercial matter
  • Coordination within Logistic team and commercial side

1.9.2.5       IT Dept

System Analysts:

  • Setup and testing the EDI function
  • Prepare IT procedure for EDI operation
  • Coordinate with external consultant for conduct the testing and implementation
  • Coordinate with external SAP technical team for conduct the testing and implementation
  • To provide consultant support on the MFG/PRO EDI function
  • To customisation the MFG/PRO program if necessary
  • To setup T&D server and mailbox connection
  • To help on conducting testing between Factory and the EDI partners
  • To customisation the mapping program if necessary
  • To help on conducting testing between Factory and the EDI partners
  • Routing table setup to control sending message to a right mailbox for HK OFFICE & China
  • To study and solve any SAP technical problem

1.9.2.6       Consultant

1.9.2.7       SAP Technical Team

1.9.3        Project funding

The overall project budget is estimated :

TOTAL PROJECT INITIAL COST:  xxx

TOTAL YEARLY RUNNING COST: xxxx

1.9.4        Top management monitoring

IT Manager will regularly monitor the overall status of the project. He will also provide regular update to the Project Owner and the IT Manager, HK OFFICE/PRC and site management about progress of the project on a monthly basis.

1.10  Identification of projects

Within the total project the following phases (projects) can be distinguished:

  • The Preparation phase. (Identify business needs and feasibility)
    During this phase the set up & planning of the whole project will be realised.
  • The Development & Testing phase.
    During this phase, the MFG/PRO customisation (if necessary) will be developed. Once the system/program is ready, the system testing will be started with several-selected SALES DEPT. As testing Okay, the implementation phase will start after a formal Go/No Go decision from the project team
  • The Implementation phase.
    It will start the production EDI interface between China MFG/PRO System and SAP.

1.11  Risks

Risk Description Solution Risk to Project Success
Technical risk on T&D service: T&D acts as our EDI service provider, then it may have risk that any T&D server hardware problem or network problem would affect the EDI message delivery and also EDI process. Factory would switch to manual operation in case of messages cannot transfer or process in China MFG/PRO System. Low
Operation risk on EDI process:During the EDI process, it may have data integrity error, which may be caused by SAP system/program error, T&D encode/decode program error, or MFG/PRO system/program error. Company would switch to manual operation to correct the error in case of data integrity found. Low
Support risk as China is new to EDI process:China may not be able to support/handle EDI problem in the beginning because they are no EDI experience. They need to take time to attend training and learn, as well as build-up their own experience. It is necessary that HK OFFICE provides training to China. However, HK OFFICE have to act as consultant/backup to China-IT to handle EDI problem in the beginning. Low

Even though there are some risks on the project as above-mentioned, the chance of risk is small and would not have any major impact to business operation as well as project success. Actually, as project failure, the impact to the business would be loss of opportunity of operation improvement in term of reliable, actual and response time.