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A practical integrated solution into enterprise application: a large-scale quality control system development case study

Vahid Hajipour (Research Center, FANAP Co., Tehran, Iran) (Department of Industrial Engineering, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Hamidreza Amouzegar (Research Center, FANAP Co., Tehran, Iran)
Sajjad Jalali (Research Center, FANAP Co., Tehran, Iran)

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management

ISSN: 0265-671X

Article publication date: 3 December 2020

Issue publication date: 16 July 2021

251

Abstract

Purpose

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) offers a streamlined system architecture to feed businesses with beneficial information in the current intense global competition. The primary concern of ERP is how to integrate different functional units to facilitate a unified flow of information. This paper aims at providing a non-trivial practice of integrating the quality control (QC) system into the core ERP processes of a real large-scaled case study.

Design/methodology/approach

To satisfy the purpose of the current study, a large-scale steel making holding, inclusive of 27 business units being dispersed over a wide area, has been targeted. In our research methodology, a sample of four business units is selected as the pilot cases to be investigated at first. The output results of such investigations are further extended to the other units. In light of the investigation, the existing QC working conditions of the pilot cases are assessed through the As-Is model. The To-Be models are derived based on the best practices and the integration scope is then bordered.

Findings

The findings show that the integrated QC solution has enabled the following features: the smooth interconnection between QC and other functional units like purchase and manufacturing, the ease of generating real-time performance report of QC unit, the sack of tracing the quality of any available item in the system and the root-cause of defects, and the straightforwardness of the qualitative assessment of the suppliers.

Research limitations/implications

There is almost no similar practice for designing a large-sized integrated system from scratch in the target region associated with our case study while the off-the-shelf products are prohibitively expensive.

Practical implications

This paper includes implications for providing a standard practice on integrating a substantial module of ERP down to the smallest detail.

Originality/value

The value of the current paper is associated with fulfilling a critical research gap in the context of studying the QC integration into an enterprise solution. In fact, despite the importance of the QC module and its plethora of interconnection with other functional units, the literature review shows a centric lack of considering such integration in a real case study, particularly the large-scale one. Further, this paper works as a valuable study in the literature owing to not only focusing on the design and development of an integrated QC solution but also considering the deployment facet of such a practice.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study has been conducted under the persistent scholarly support of FANAP Research Center. The authors are thankful to the influencers of MIDHCO and FANAP companies that interactively contribute towards achieving the unique practice of the proposed integrated system. A particular acknowledgement goes to the Pasargad Financial Group for providing the pre-requisites of carrying the research.The authors are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their constructive and helpful comments.

Citation

Hajipour, V., Amouzegar, H. and Jalali, S. (2021), "A practical integrated solution into enterprise application: a large-scale quality control system development case study", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 38 No. 7, pp. 1487-1519. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-07-2020-0232

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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