IT Support of Production Efficiency Analysis in Ecological Aspect - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 202

3 IT Support of the Analysis of Production
Process Efficiency
Using spreadsheet programs in planning and balancing of production resources
as well as during further efficiency analyses is the simplest and most often used
solution. Nevertheless, it is a solution which is not necessarily profitable when it
comes to the way of information flow. Most of companies, use not only analy-
ses and reports generated from ERP systems, but also use spreadsheet programs to
support decision making process.
ERP systems are used to increase efficiency but not only by better information
flow, but also by improve production process. ERP system functionality, from the
point of view of production management, should include the following issues:
• creating, modifying and using individual positions of bill of material on each
stage of a technological process of a product,
• creating and managing production orders by generating a production structure
for the order, creating a production schedule and creating a material demand for
the order,
• carrying out analyses of production orders including the costs of orders'
realisation,
• short-term and long-term scheduling of production processes,
• generating orders automatically based on existing warehouse status and product
rotation as well as on unrealised orders.
Production management in IT systems of this class aims at ensuring normalisa-
tion and standardisation of production actions (service of existing technologies),
detail production planning, planning the purchase of materials and raw materials,
controlling and recording the real course of production processes (orders' services)
and the possibility to grasp and control the costs of production in a controlling
aspect (Sliwczynski 2011a ). A detailed functionality of IT system concerning the
management of production processes is presented in Table 3 .
Making observations in business practice, one should emphasize the low rate
of utilisation of ERP class IT management systems available in enterprises during
efficiency analyses of production processes. Such a situation is most often caused
by two factors. (1) The functionality of information systems is often compli-
cated and many enterprises have difficulty with copying their analytical processes
in the given IT tool. (2) The functionality of ERP systems is insufficient for the
detailed efficiency analysis of production processes requiring honest and current
data which makes it necessary to apply additional IT tools or dedicated systems
supporting the analysed process. Using dedicated systems, technologically sepa-
rate for different processes in the enterprise, can create a problem of generating
data with different structures and standards which will prevent a general efficiency
analysis of the enterprise (Santarek and Obluska 2012 ).