MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

ASSIGNMENT II ORGANIZATION: TATA STEEL

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. MALATHI SHRIRAM

SUBMITTED BY: AMSHA KANTHI L (13007) DEEPAK M (13019) NUPOOR JAIN (13039) SHONIT MITTAL (13048) VAIDYANATHANASHWIN PRAKASH (13058)

Tata Group
Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It encompasses seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata as a trading company. It has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Tata Group has over 100 operating companies each of them operates independently. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan Industries, Tata Communications and Taj Hotels.

Tata Steel
Tata Steel has always believed that the principal of mutual benefit between countries, corporations, customers, employees and communities is the most effective route to profitable and sustainable growth. Tata Steel Limited (formerly Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO)) is an Indian multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and a subsidiary of the Tata Group. Established in 26th of august 1907, Tata Steel is among the top ten global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of over 28 million tonnes per annum. Tata Steels vision is to be the worlds largest industry benchmark through the excellence of its people, its innovative approach and overall conduct. Underpinning this vision is a performance culture committed to aspirations targets, safety and social responsibility, continuous improvement, openness and transparency. It is now one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Tata Steel Group, with a turnover of US$ 24.82 billion in FY 2012- 2013, has over 81,000 employees across five continents and is a Fortune 500 company. The company has won many awards and recognitions. Tata Steel's products include hot and cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanized sheets, tubes, wire rods, construction re-bars, rings and bearings. The company has introduced brands like Tata Steelium (the world's first branded Cold Rolled Steel), Tata Shaktee (Galvanized Corrugated Sheets), Tata Tiscon (re-bars), Tata Pipes, Tata Bearings, Tata Agrico (hand tools and implements) and Tata Wiron (galvanized wire products). The Construction Solution Group explores new avenues for steel utilization by techniques that are economical. Tata Steel has also developed 'galvannealed' cold rolled steel with technical assistance from Nippon steel for high-end auto applications.

IT Infrastructure in TATA STEEL

Information Technology Infrastructure is the integrated framework upon which digital networks operate. This infrastructure includes data centers, computers, computer networks, Database Management devices, and a regulatory system. Hardware: WebFOCUS and with it the opportunity to centralize reporting via an intranet, making it easier for all users to develop and distribute reports. Tata Steel now intends for the majority of employees to build and deploy reports on the Web. Which does not requires version control and software upgrades for each department because it is centralized. AutoDESPATCH a web based real time open cast mine production and monitoring system that enables the centralized monitoring, control and optimization of all mining activities.

Software: Coordinating all the data from the various legacy systems and platforms could have been daunting. Hence, iWay Software provides a flexible data architecture that satisfied the companys information requirements Using iWay DataMigrator, Tata Steel creates data warehouses to assemble information and support reporting and analysis applications. DataMigrator uses iWays award-winning adapters for seamless access to and migration of virtually any enterprise data. Its easy-to-use interface enables fast, flexible, end-to-end extract, transform, and load (ETL) process creation involving Tata Steels multiple data structures across disparate computing platforms. Oracle data warehouse to produce the information and graphs needed for the vast majority of Account Team and customer enquiries. To make things even easier, Tata Steel has linked DataMigrator to WebFOCUS ReportCaster, which means as soon as fresh data comes in reports are kicked off. Integrated supply chain: from network planning through scheduling and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). The Supply Chain Management (SCM) application provides the rough-cut planning in Demand Planning. The result is planning blocks of similar products which are then handed over to production planning. Right before production starts, planned orders from the SCM application are converted into production orders and, via the ERP system, are transferred into the MES layer. It is at that time when quantities are being translated into pieces (slabs, coils etc.). The latest company-wide strategic directive is SAP migration another step toward organizational cohesiveness and one that WebFOCUS is well-positioned to complement in terms of reporting against SAP Business Warehouse. SAP R/3 in

Sales, Procurement, Finance and Accounting, HR, Production Planning Systems for Steel plants using the APO module of SAP Tata Steel is considering another Information Builders product, the iWay SAP Adapter that "listens" for SAP outputs and "pushes" requests out automatically. This presents an opportunity for time- and event-driven data warehouses, which Tata Steel believes could be an opportunity going forward.

Networks: Videoconferencing Live video streaming for improved communication across geographies VoIP Wi-Fi integration with cell phones PDAs to support mobile computing Intranet Workflow, Document Management, Collaboration using Lotus Notes

The IT investment
An industry veteran, Varun Jha has seen IT from its formative years. Jha took over the MIS at Tata Steel way back in 1994 and, over the years, has put in place key IT implementations. "IT investments need a full business justification. This justification can be based on RoI, which is quite suitable for transactional IT systems. In some other cases IT investments are an essential enabler for business initiatives. In such cases the justification or RoI should be for the entire investment on that initiative and not separately for enabling IT systems. Tata Steel follows a portfolio approach to IT where IT investments are evaluated as per Gartner's guidelines applicable to the portfolio category to which the investment belongs," says Jha. Running a huge enterprise like Tata Steel is a task that calls for a high degree of planning and execution. Here is where Jha's domain intensive knowledge helped to conceive and implement various solutions.

Automation in Tata steel

Situated within the steel plant of Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur, the Automation Division of Tata Steel came into being in 1992 with the modernisation program of Tata Steel to develop process optimization solutions through applied research and provide associated operational support to the production units of Tata Steel through Product Life cycle management. In the recent years, the division has brought in focus on Research & Development, in addition to

engineering and project implementation skills for enhanced support to production processes and agility towards technological changes, software obsolescence and reducing dependence on technology suppliers in process automation solutions. 1. AutoDESPATCH a web based real time open cast mine production and monitoring system that enables the centralized monitoring, control and optimization of all mining activities. It provides real time productivity and utilization information of all vehicles configured into the system, enabling optimal scheduling of operations and maintenance activities. 2. Yard Management System The Yard Management System or YMS automates the receipt, storage, dispatch and tracking of materials, leading to improved planning, forecasting and order fulfilment. Benefits: Real time visibility of inventory and shipments. Real time tracking of location of materials. Reduced material handling time. Online reports on crane performance, yard inventory, execution time and VIVO (vehicle in and vehicle out) time.

3. Furnacescope Furnacescope monitors the gas flow at furnace top, and observes the surface of ore or coke when their temperature exceeds the standard level. Benefits: Operators Confidence Furnace operators can visually observe the operating conditions within the blast furnace all the time. Abnormal operation prediction. Prevention of furnace wall damage. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Slab Quality Evaluation system V . Eye TRU Square Billet Rhomboidity Measurement Casting Online Diagnostics System Coke Oven Scheduling and Heat Monitoring System Process Control Solution for BOF Steel making

10. Torpedo Ladle Tracking System

THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AT TATA STEEL

ERP IMPLEMENTATION TISCO deserves lot of credit for implementing ERP because of the fact that many organizations in the global level have given up the very idea of ERP due to the fact that there are lots of failures associated with it even in the implementation stage. ERP implementation did in wrong manner have caused havoc to organizations more than bringing profits. This being the case it is natural to expect a large company (in terms of Size and volume of operations) like TISCO to discourage the idea of Enterprise resource planning. However TISCO proved to be different from the others by choosing ERP in the right time and implementing it in a proper manner. They have also reported a whooping profit and reduction of costs in the whole process. Another amazing fact is that they implemented it into the whole systems in one single spree. The method of implementing it in one spree carries a lot of risks especially for a bigger company. Infect the success rate of this method itself is low in general and very low as far as bigger companies are concerned. In case of the rare success organizations will experience effective results in their enterprise operations. TISCO has achieved that by way of meticulous handling and professionalism. The net results of their ERP software have been described to be path-breaking and a trendsetting one. WHY ERP IN TISCO TISCO faced two major problems from the systems that existed for a long time. Firstly they were not customer friendly. The whole system was tuned to the process and very little attention was paid to the customer demands. Secondly the systems were outdates and the modalities of operation were too complex and not error free. In order to rectify these issues which would otherwise prove to be major setbacks to the company the organization resolved to take up ERP. This was instigated by the concerned departments. Leading consultants were hired and the business structure was studied and suitable plans were drafted accordingly. In a quickly changing industry like steel, one need information systems which quickly provide them the data they need. We believe that ERP, especially in its mature implementations today, is the crucial component for a companys IT data backbone. ERP can play an essential role in: Driving accurate and fast decisions (product profitability, procurement spend) with consistently defined data Running broadly known and supported applications Harmonizing and optimizing back-office processes across the enterprise that comply with finance requirements such as SOX and IFRS Enabling best-practice demand planning for supply-chain processes Future-proofing global applications that support global enterprises

Six ERP Design Challenges for Steel Companies A steel company presents six industry-specific design challenges for implementing ERP, as described below. A successful ERP project will start by analyzing these challenges in detail across all of the companys integrated processes. This analysis will result in the basic decisions that will be the foundation of the ERP project. Challenge 1: More than one planning strategy Steelmakers often use a combination of production planning strategies. Typically the flat or strip products are make-to-order, whereas the long products are make to- stock. Depending on the existence of a de-couple point, finish-to-order could be a relevant planning strategy as well. Such a combination of planning strategies affects the design of most ERP processes, including supply chain processes as well as the financial/cost control processes. Cost control in make-to-stock tends to go for standard price approaches, but in a make-to-order environment costing happens on an individual order cost collection and forecast basis. ERP systems today can handle this kind of complexity. Challenge 2: Complex product variations A steel product is made up of a large number of characteristics, making the product difficult to configure when entering it in the ERP system. Configuration in the make-to-order entries is typically done while entering the order, whereas for the make-to-stock entries, configuration is done in the product definition, that is, on the material master. This burdens the early discussions during the design phase of an ERP implementation. Fundamental decisions need to be made very early in the project about how many (finished product) materials should be defined: one extreme is to define by material group which needs to be configured completely in the order, or the other end of the spectrum is to define all possible/feasible characteristic combinations which can possibly explode into an extremely large number of finished product definitions. A steel product tend to explode towards the end of production processing; in other words, the bill of material stands on its head or is v-shaped, as shown in Figure 1. This means that the later in the process you define a product, the higher the number of products to be defined becomes. ERP solutions today can readily handle the complexities this of the V-shaped bill of material. They allow characteristics based product configuration with automatic deduction of characteristics, characteristic value inheritance from sales order header to item level, entry of multiple order units such as pieces, tons, dimensions, and so on. Characteristics then drive production, shipping and purchasing processes across the supply chain

Challenge 3: Flexible planning Planning for steelmaking often needs to happen on short notice, with unstable production processes and unplanned outputs. This requires continuous re-assignment of products to processes and orders dependent on the Characteristics described above. ERP systems today allow re-assigning flexibly to handle these situations. Challenge 4: Specific Customer Service Requirements To cope with high-demanding customer segments such as automotive and construction, tight integration with business partners on forecasts, electronic customer orders (EDI, internet etc.) are typically needed. ERP systems today support electronic integration with partners. Challenge 5: Complex production scheduling combining both continuous and batch production Figure 2 below illustrates the flow in a typical steel mill. While the blast furnace and converter work in batches, the caster works continuously and the finishing lines work in batches again.

The batches need to be selected based on characteristics during production, preparation and shipment planning. This means that the planning process needs to be able to derive batches with characteristics inheritance and history tracing. Finally, the scheduling part of the planning system needs to be able to work with multiple and dynamic bottlenecks that is, bottlenecks which can change based on incidents such as production problems in certain process steps. ERP systems today can handle all of these situations. Challenge 6: Detailed margin analysis In todays steel industry when prices are high and capacity short, margin analysis becomes the essential method to tell what money is being made on which customer/product segments.

On top of segment analysis, it is also essential to differentiate between strategic materials (cokes and ore, Ni and Cr for stainless) and the other cost elements that may be easier to control. ERP systems provide the tools to support these decisions. The ERP system will also need to work closely with the companys Business Information Systems (BIS) to optimize the business benefits. Working together, the ERP and BIS systems can, for example, improve inventory allocation to late orders.

Integrated IT Model for Steel An integrated IT model as in Figure 3 is important because it lets you see the systems involved in planning and production. A typical flow would be: The Supply Chain Management (SCM) application provides the rough-cut planning in Demand Planning. The result is planning blocks of similar products which are then handed over to production planning. When orders are being entered, availability checks assign the order to a block (unless inventory already exists that meets the order) and feeds back a promise date (at the end of the block to allow for the flexibility of possibly moving to an earlier date). The mill optimizer then typically would re-shuffle orders in between the blocks, and feed results back into the SCM application in order to optimize the load balancing. Right before production starts, planned orders from the SCM application are converted into production orders and, via the ERP system, are transferred into the MES layer. It is at that time when quantities are being translated into pieces (slabs, coils etc.). Detailed scheduling then takes place, sequencing and combining pieces from various orders throughout the mill into lots for optimization.

Production completion then posts an updated status of the orders into the ERP system,
including stock receipts of finished products, and so forth.

Implementation Process At Tata Steel The company knew well that they had a tough time especially to implement the software in one stroke. They had to choose top ERP software in order to ensure that it meets the demands of a big firm like TISCO. They went ahead with associating and implanting TISCO to all the stakeholders so that they become compatible. These ideas also contributed to the success. They were also shrewd enough in adopting the modern and most recent technology available

in the market. The period set for implementation seemed to be another major challenge. The time granted for the process was 8 months. The business process was divided into two main segments. The core functions were denoted to be major ones. Similarly the supporting functions were named minor ones. A plan of action on the proposed ERP's impact was drafted depicting their relation to one another and to the business process. All of them were made to bear in mind the fact that ERP's implementation was imperative and that the deadlines were not very comfortable. The company took all efforts to ensure that the change did not produce any sort of resentment in the organization. This was done by educating everyone on the need and desirability of change. In addition all apprehensions relating to change were discussed and clarifications made to the fullest satisfaction.

LOTUS NOTES
Tata Steel Projects is a multi-disciplinary design company with a long history in the rail industry and is now a market leader in both the industrial and rail sectors. Background Their predominately manual purchasing process was slow, time consuming and unproductive, wasting countless hours of busy peoples time on tedious and repetitive tasks. They also found they had limited control and visibility over the purchasing process and suppliers use. This meant that they were restricting their ability to monitor supplier performance and take advantage of any discounts. Automated Purchasing & Invoice Tracking Solution 360 Purchase Order and Invoice Tracking system is a Lotus Notes solution which fully automates the process, giving everyone involved real-time access to the current status of every request to purchase (requisition) through to final purchase invoice approval. It also provides visibility into the history of what has happened to date and gives notifications with reasons for any bottlenecks occurring. The workflow that moves each transaction through the process is seamless and fully automated, with each step being dictated by preset rules reflecting Tata Steel Projects Procurement Policy with electronic notifications sent to the next in line that action is required from. Benefits Tata Steel Projects estimated that at least a third of the time currently being spent on processing orders will be saved, especially through improved employee productivity and enhanced visibility of purchasing information. The solution has now delivered increased productivity, centralized financial and budget control and more importantly, the ability to make substantial and sustainable savings through better and smarter purchasing and supplier management.

DATA WAREHOUSE AND MINING A Data Warehouse (DWH) was recently installed at the LD2 and Slab Caster Shop to make data available to plant engineers in a user-friendly manner and for conducting analysis linked to improvement projects. The DWH is designed to store large volume of data generated on different computer (hardware / software) platforms, at the several sections of the shop including hot metal pretreatment, primary and secondary steelmaking, slab casting and conditioning. The Data Warehouse facility was developed using the technology of IBM that includes DB2 UDB for windows, DB2 Warehouse Manager, DB2 OLAP Server and Intelligent Miner. COGNOS Impromptu was employed to develop standard reports. COGNOS Impromptu and Power-play are end-user tools for viewing reports and analysis cubes respectively. Thus, in addition to storing vast volume of data, the DWH facility is equipped with number of special tools for conducting data analysis. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Tata Steel has cut costs and wired 8,000 employees to share knowledge that will benefit the organization. Now it wants to hook the entire 40,000 employees into this programme Sample this: Like all major steel makers, Tata Steel faced a difficulty in getting rid of the boulders ('burden' in mining parlance) that invariably crops up while extracting coal from the mines. Disposing these burden continued to be an expensive proposition for the company until Tata Steel's engineering department suggested that they be used for constructing drain walls, for instance. The suggestion was lapped up immediately and implemented right away. Tata Steel claims that inter-department knowledge sharing initiatives like this one has helped the company save Rs 10 lakh during 2003-04. As the company strives to take its Knowledge Management initiative forward, there is one problem facing it: how to bring the involvement of the entire 40,000-odd Tata Steel employees into this fold? So far, they have been able to connect about 8,000 employees under this Knowledge Management programme. The biggest challenge facing us now is to connect the shop-floor level workers who have a problem interacting in the English language. Knowledge Management was initiated at Tata Steel way back in July 1999 with an objective to shift the basis of growth from natural resources and physical assets to intellectual capital, which has become a source of innovation, growth and value today. Knowledge Management was brought under the more ambitious change management initiative called ASPirational Initiatives to Retain Excellence, or ASPIRE, across Tata organizations in 2,000. But now, it is increasingly gaining critical mass. While the Tatas are also on the lookout for a vernacular computer interface to connect the employees and thereby broad base the initiative, efforts are also on to interconnect other Tata

Group companies with Tata Steel. The Knowledge Repository was followed by creating Knowledge Communities which are actually groups of like-minded people who come together to share what they know and learn from one another. "There are 29 such communities that are in existence today. They exchange e-mails giving valuable information that can be adopted by others," says Mr Arora. He also adds that writing mails did not come easily to many employees, therefore, the company waited for two years to acclimatize them with writing before making it a mandatory practice. Another significant development of the Knowledge Management initiative has been the formation of a "Ask Expert" system. Under this system, any employee facing a particular job related problem may seek advice from experts who are available online. Currently, there are about 250 such experts at Tata Steel who provide expert assistance to the employees. However, Tata Steel's claims of knowledge sharing paying rich dividends has been discounted by other steel makers. E-SALES Building a trusting, long lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with their customers has been Tata Steels fundamental belief and driving force. This has formed the cornerstone of all their initiatives. In line with this, their latest offering is the self-help customer service. The site offers a collection of reports on an online basis anywhere-anytime, easy to read directly from there SAP R/3 system. Now the customer can access information ranging from order status to delivery status, invoices to credit note, payment dues to credit status, and many more through exclusively tailored report. E-PROCUREMENT The e-procurement site is Tata Steels Business-to-Business (B2B) procurement platform. Among the many forward looking initiatives being taken by Tata Steel to tap the tremendous opportunities offered by Information Technology, especially the Web, e-procurement is one of them being used to conduct business with suppliers. The suppliers of Tata Steel, who become e-partners, are expected to reap lots of benefits through this system.

E-AUCTION and TENDERS

In order to meet the customers demand in the best possible manner, the site has launched the Tender Information and online quoting, which is quickest method to serve the customers.

The use of IS by organization for gaining a competitive advantage

The Automation Division of Tata Steel Limited, offers a range of solutions for process optimization, visualization, simulation& control covering all important areas & processes in steel manufacturing. The Automation Division can be considered as a competitive edge over its competitors because it is very beneficial for TISCO and TATA group of companies as well. How? The Automation Division of Tata Steel Limited not only caters to TISCO but also to other Steel manufacturers. This means, it also sells its Automated Technologies to other steel manufacturing companies and hence making the existence of this division more profitable. All their products are on display in their official website.

The organization road map for its IT / IS future

Tata Steel is considering another Information Builders product, the iWay SAP Adapter that "listens" for SAP outputs and "pushes" requests out automatically. This presents an opportunity for time- and event-driven data warehouses, which Tata Steel believes could be an opportunity going forward. As part of a big IT initiative to standardize reporting environments, reduce integration points, and enable more cooperation between business units, Tata Steel has begun migrating finance, procurement, and HR systems to SAP. Over time, more functions will also move to SAP. The company expects this strategic restructuring to deliver big business benefits by integrating systems that are now disparate, reducing overall IT spending and sharpening its competitive edge.

REFERENCES
Books
Management Information Systems In Knowledge Economy
By Joseph

Links http://www.informationbuilders.com/applications/tata_steel http://books.google.co.in/books?id=9wO8zoxfIYwC&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq=information+syste m+used+by+TATA+STEEL&source=bl&ots=pA2s7aA2T6&sig=5kFEzPNLPSdG5wEP2xyav8Njrs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fKOAUp3cAYGQrQeu24DQCQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage& q&f=false

http://www.tatasteel.com/ http://www.tatasteelindia.com/media/tatatech43/page_31.htm http://www.dqindia.com/dataquest/news/142415/the-iron-man#sthash.AxM0JiYj.dpuf

http://www.citehr.com/464-knowledge-management-tata-steel-best-practices.html#ixzz2lC3eWzW6