HONAM PETROCHEMICAL’S QUEST FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT

REPORTSHONAM PETROCHEMICAL ‘S QUEST

FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT REPORTS

BY: GOBINATH NADARAJAH & PUVIYAN THEVAR

Honam Petrochemical is a South Korean producer of

petrochemicals and polymers with its businesses comprising of polyethylene, polypropylene, functional resins and basic petrochemicals and chemicals.

It holds the largest shares in HDPE, polyethylene and MEG in the Korean market.

Honam is focusing on its 2005-2014 vision plan entitled “exploring new horizons”.

Its main aim is to become a “top tier chemical company in Asia” and to achieve sales of $10 billion.

Honam has 9 affiliate companies in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, UK, Russia, USA, & Hong Kong.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Unfiltered Data Executives at the chemical firm wanted access

to the data before they went through manipulation and processing.

Executives wanted to see current data to get a real view of what was actually happening on the plant floor or in the sales office.

1. List and describe the information requirements of HPC’s new management

system. What problems was the new system designed to solve?

Remove delays HPC’s executive decision makers did not want

to work with last quarter’s numbers. They wanted anytime access to the most

timely data, but they did not want to be overloaded with unnecessary data so they could focus on the “watch-up indicators” considered crucial to the business.

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Web accessed interface HPC executives wanted enterprise-wide data

that could be accessed and shared easily across various business units and functions to support the company’s expansion geographically and by product line.

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The existing systems and data that were out

of date and “sanitized” allows management decision in the company.

Individual managers were processing and manipulating the data to make their departments “look better” to senior management.

The management never get a clear picture what is going on in the company and thus difficult to make decision.

2. To what extent were ‘people’ problem affecting management decision making at HPC? What were some of the management,

organization, and technology issues that had to be addressed by the new system? How did the system’s designers make the

system more ‘people friendly’?

The system is more user friendly because the

system reduces the time required to collect, process and track data.

Executive decision making takes place more rapidly and can be access through out the organization.

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Executive Interviews IT department officers will have discussions

with executives about the system’s benefits and the usage.

The advantages of the new system being told to make sure workers understand and able to change to the new system.

3. What role did end users play in developing HPC’s new system? How did the project team make sure users were

involved? What would have happened to the project if they had not done this?

Campaigning The information system department continues

to run campaigns to ensure that executives are using the system with the most effective way.

Relevant data list Benchmarking with other companies provides

a good look at what data bring the most value and the relevancy of the data provided.

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Phased Approach HPC doesn’t push the new system onto

executives early on the ERP life cycle. Instead, they waited until the company was

experienced with ERP software and confident on its data quality and its data collection and processing method.

4. What other steps did HPC take to make sure the system was successful?

Modern Interface Executive can view key performance information

such as manufacturing costs plant, transportation costs, daily production and inventory rates. Global product price trends and information can be displayed visually in dashboard.

Mobile Access In mobile phone, delivery of the information is

personalized and differentiated for high-level executives, middle managers and front-line employee.

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SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Drag and visualization tool Designed to create interactive analytics for

powerful, personalized dashboards Can be used for performance management,

planning, reporting, query and analysis, and enterprise information management, provide self-service access to data from databases and Excel spreadsheets.

5. What types of system-building methods and tools did HPC use for building its system?

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence An ad hoc query, reporting and analysis tool

that is used to create queries or use existing reports, format retrieved information, and perform analysis to understand trends and root causes.

The system is so simple and well-designed that users required little training how to use the system to access data and reports.

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Unbiased data Executives no longer are limited to sanitized, stale

data in an outdated presentation format. Timely decision Management discussions and decisions are based on

timely, consistent, and accurate company wide-data. Real time data Because the system reduces the time required to

collect, process, and track the data, executive decision making takes place more rapidly.

6. What were the benefits of the new system? How did it change the way Honam ran its business? How successful was this system

solution?