LEGO: EMBRACING CHANGE BY COMBINING BI WITH A FLEXIBLE

INFORMATION SYSTEM

GROUP 7

• Samihah Ahmed• Aliaa Mohd Ziyadi• Nittaraj A/L Perumal

INTRODUCTION• The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt",

meaning "play well“

• Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

• Has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder.

• The original Lego toys started with a wooden duck.

• But the first LEGO automatic binding brick is their most important product.

• The products have undergone extensive development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO brick.

Q1: Explain the role of the database in SAP's three-tier system

• SAP’s business suite is based on a flexible three-tier client-server architecture that can easily be adapted to the new Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) available in the latest versions of the software.

• In the first tier, a client interface-a browser-type graphical user interface (GUI) running on either a laptop, desktop, or mobile device-submits users’ requests to the application servers. The applications servers send the processed requests to the database system-receive and process clients’ requests to the database system-the third tier-which consists of one or more relational databases.

• The main role of the database is as an information storage system. The relational database contain the tables that store data on LEGO’s products, daily operations, the supply chain, and thousands of employees.

• Using the SAP query tool, users are able to toggle and tabulate data and extract reports from the database. Therefore the database’s role is also as a reports generator.

Q2 : Explain why distributed architectures are flexible.

• A distributed architecture system is a software system in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages. The components interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal.

• Data may be stored in multiple computers, located in the same physical location; or may be dispersed over a network of interconnected computers. A distributed database can reside on network servers on the Internet, on corporate intranets or extranets, or on other company networks.

• Due to store data across multiple computers, distributed databases can improve performance at end-user worksites by allowing transactions to be processed on many machines, instead of being limited to one. Users from different parts of the world may access the same data. Therefore they are more flexible in terms of availability to users.

• improved performance of the machines, as data is located near the site of greatest demand, and the database systems themselves are parallelized, allowing load on the databases to be balanced among servers. A high load on one module of the database won't affect other modules of the database in a distributed database.

• more flexible for purposes of expansion of the database and transparency, as the data can be monitored on site of the specific computers as the data is potentially stored within the departments they relate to. There is local autonomy or site autonomy, where a department can control the data about them (as they are the ones familiar with it).

• economically flexible and may cost less to create a network of smaller computers with the power of a single large computer. Systems can be modified, added and removed from the distributed database without affecting other modules (systems).

Q3 : Identify some of the business intelligence features included in SAP's business software suite.

Q4 : What are the main advantages and disadvantages of having multiple databases in a distributed architecture?

Explain.

A) SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)

• SCM is a complete solution that covers supply chain networking, supply chain planning, supply chain coordination, and SCE (Supply Chain Execution).

• It includes a collection of planning applications related to Advanced Planning, Optimization, Scheduling and Integration with other SAP execution applications.

• It basically does a supply chain monitoring and analysis as well as forecasting, planning and inventory optimization.

• The software caters to the company’s need to track demand, supply, manufacturing status, logistics (i.e. where things are in the supply chain), and distribution.

• They also need to share data with supply chain partners at an ever increasing rate.

B) PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT (PLM) • PML is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from

inception, through engineering design and manufacture, to service and disposal of manufactured products. PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.

• PLM enables the company to deliver high-quality products and reduce waste, throughout every phase of the product life cycle, to accelerate product development by integrating supply-chain and procurement management.

• PLM also helps the company to improve operations with tools to plan, measure, and track resources, safety, and maintenance, and to optimize productivity, via an easy-to-use, role-based portal that enables content delivery.

C) ENTERPRISE RESOURCES PLANNING (ERP) • Enterprise Resources Planning consists of several modules, including utilities

for marketing and sales, field service, product design and development, production and inventory control, human resources, finance and accounting. SAP ERP collects and combines data from the separate modules to provide the company or organization with enterprise resource planning.

• ERP creates an increased competitiveness with integrated, fast, and flexible business processes. It allows for an accelerated time to market with innovative, individualized products and services. ERP simplifies corporate structure, market channel, and business scenario management and improves corporate resource and asset utilization. ERP provides a consolidated foundation for the latest mobile, cloud, and in-memory technologies.

Advantage DisadvantagesMultiple database contains the tables that store data on product, daily operation, supply chain and thousands of employees.

The additional overhead of these transactions can be a performance penalty when the total amount of data in the network is small. Users also see slower performance when accessing data that is not local.

Managers can easily use the SAP query tool to obtain reports from the database because it does not require any technical skills.

Increased the use of database space. Every tables must exist in every database. When the number of tables is very large, the amount of space used can be significant. Administrators must use database storage parameters to size tables and reduce database space consumption.

Advantage Disadvantages

Distributed architecture enables authorized personnel to have direct access to database system from the company’s various location including in Europe, North America and Asia.

Administrators must keep the schemas of all database synchronized and ensure that the network is configured to take optimal advantage of the distributed-database environment in term of availability and performance.

Although database backups are more flexible in a distributed-database environment, multiple database add complexity to the backup process