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.