Pokphand excels in information system
Pokphand excels in information system
A new management information system, coupled with an office automation program, was introduced last January by PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia to face the challenges of the coming globalization era.
Called Charoen Pokphand Electronic Information System (CPEIS), the system greatly enhances the efficiency of this leading agro- industrial organization.
CPEIS integrates all on-line systems which were developed earlier in each of the company's plants and offices in Jakarta, Tangerang, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan, and thus provides management with accurate and up-to-date information on every aspect of its operations. Obviously it has become a very effective tool for a company which produces about 1,000,000 metric tons of animal feed annually in different parts of the country, besides breeding and supplying top quality poultry stock for the Indonesian market.
The brainchild of Eddy S. Zaoputra, Senior Vice President PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia, CPEIS is the result of more than 10 years development and substantial investment. It involves different levels of management working together with an electronic data processing team, most of whose members have informatics educational backgrounds.
In fact, electronic information systems have been used separately in each and every one of the group's offices and plants for many years. Each local network was designed from the very beginning to become part of a larger and integrated on-line system later on. And once the whole design was completed, it was only a matter of time to set every part in order to become a fully integrated on-line system. It took about six months last year to train users before it was formally launched early this year.
The office automation network now links every part of the group's operations, from production sites to finance, marketing and administration departments, from Jakarta to Surabaya, Semarang and Medan. An interactive link was also established with its representative office in Singapore.
Supported by external economic information collected daily from stock markets in Jakarta, Singapore, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong, CPEIS not only provides information on what and how the group is doing in each and every stage of its operations, but it also helps in making fast decisions whenever deemed necessary in view of concurrent global market conditions.
About 80 percent of PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia's production cost is spent on raw materials, thus any fluctuation in raw material prices has great impact on the overall performance of the company.
"The establishment of this CPEIS program gives us great benefits, especially by its very up-to-date, accurate and extensive information network," Eddy said proudly. "Because of that, management can make fast decisions, and consequently enhance the company's synergy while simultaneously controlling operational risks. In fact by using this program, we have made a lot of our operations effective which is invaluable to management."
As demonstrated earlier this month during a special ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the group's fellowship program, CPEIS covers the whole aspect of its management. It provides an overall picture of the whole group in terms of raw material inventories, production capacity, value and volume of sold products, as well as accrued revenues from sales and accounts receivable.
Executions of all activities are also inputted, not only as data but visually as well. Thus management can monitor the exact conditions of each part of its operations not only in figures and graphs, but also in a visual format. A Jakarta manager can actually monitor containers loading raw materials in Medan, Surabaya, or Semarang while it happens. If something goes wrong, a warning message will flash and the exact conditions will be reported through the system and management from faraway can immediately make any necessary decisions.
Business relations and partners of PT Charoen Pokphand were very impressed after watching the demonstration. Gunarni Soeworo, president director of Bank Niaga, who was present at the occasion, saw the CPEIS as very strategic and supportive for the company's activities.
"This CPEIS is very impressive, and very useful for making business decisions," Soeworo said.
Christian F. Ferreros, a representative of the Asian Institute of Management in Jakarta, said: "We have presented this company with an award for financial management (1994), but obviously this company maintains excellence not only in financial management. It has also developed itself into the information technology." The Institute annually presents awards to companies in the region for excellence in General Management, Financial Management, Marketing Management, Operations Management, People Development and Management, and Information Technology Management.