AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND UTILIZATION

AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY OF JAPANESE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Abstract

With the globalization and digitization of corporate activities in recent years, the efficiency of supply chain management and company-wide information flow has become urgent issues. Responding to these issues, Japanese companies have been implementing and utilizing enterprise systems to efficiently coordinate various activities related to value creation. This study aims to elucidate the actual status of the enterprise system implementation and operation, as well as the critical issues commonly encountered, based on an exploratory case study of five Japanese manufacturing companies. The contribution of this paper is to clarify the characteristics of the problems that arise when integrating existing IT systems, new IT systems, and manufacturing organizational capabilities from the perspective of IT system evolution and the dynamic process of corporate activities to overcome these problems. Another significant contribution is the presentation of a framework for a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary process of the implementation and utilization of the enterprise systems.