A risk mitigation framework for integrated-enterprise systems implementation for the manufacturing environment

Companies today are faced with the constant challenge to reinvent and reengineer themselves and to actively collaborate with business partners and customers in order to stay competitive and survive in the market. This has mandated the need for companies to implement Integrated-enterprise System (IS) in the areas of supply chain management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management and e-business. However, such implementations involve many risks, as they are often highly complex, costly and have long project timelines. Failure to address and mitigate these risks has resulted in many known project failures. This paper introduces a risk mitigation framework for the implementation of IS in the manufacturing environment. This framework helps ensure that the various risks and Potential Problem Areas (PPAs) are identified at a very early stage and mitigated at the various milestones of the IS implementation project life cycle. A case study of an IS implementation using the risk mitigation framework will also be presented. This framework was used to mitigate project risks in the successful implementation of an IS in a manufacturing enterprise.