Important Questions and Answers: Enterprise Resource Planning - Solutions and Functional Modules

ERP SOLUTIONS AND FUNCTIONAL MODULES

1. Define business.

Business can be defined as the activities of individuals or groups that are involved in developing, producing and distributing the goods and services needed to satisfy other peoples’ needs.

2. What are the three resources of business?

Land, labour and capital

3. State the various business modules in ERP system.

·        Human resources

·        Finance

·        Manufacturing

·        Plant maintenance

·        Sales & distribution

·        Materials management

·        Quality management

·        Production planning

4. State the finance modules in most ERP systems.

·        Financial accounting

·        Investment management

·        Controlling

·        Treasury

·        Enterprise controlling

5. Write about financial accounting.

It provides company wide control and integration of financial information that is essential to strategic decision making. It gives the ability to centrally track financial accounting data within an international framework of multiple companies, languages, currencies and charts of accounts.

6. What are the three different layers of SAP R/3?

·        Database layer

·        Application layer

·        Presentation layer

7. What is asset accounting and legal consolidation?

Asset accounting manages the company’s fixed assets, whereas legal consolidation permits direct data transfer, from individual statements into the consolidated report.

8. What is cost centre accounting?

Cost center accounting analyses where overheads occur within the organization. Costs are assigned to the sub-areas of the organization where they are originated.

9. State the versions of SAP’s ERP package.

·        Mainframe version (SAP R/2)

·        Client/server version

10.            State some major subsystems of manufacturing module.

·        Material and capacity planning

·        Shop floor control

·        Quality management

·        JIT / Repetitive manufacturing

·        Cost management

·        Tooling

11.            What are the various subsystems in HR module?

·        Personnel management

·        Organizational management

·        Payroll accounting

·        Time management

·        Personnel management

12.            What are the various subsystems of a plant maintenance module?

·        Preventive maintenance control

·        Equipment tracking

·        Component tracking

·        Plant maintenance calibration tracking

·        Plant maintenance warranty claims tracking

13.            What are the main modules of Materials Management module?

·        Pre-purchasing activities

·        Purchasing

·        Vendor evaluation

·        Inventory management

·        Invoice verification and material inspection

14.            State the sub activities in pre-purchasing.

·        Requirements calculation

·        Requisition for quotations

·        Vendor ratings

·        Quotation evaluation

·        Vendor selection

·        Contracts

15.            What is BPR?

BPR or Business Process Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed.

16.            Give some sales related business transactions.

·        Sales queries, such as inquiries and quotations

·        Sales orders

·        Outline agreements, such as contracts and scheduling agreements

·        Delivery / shipment

·        Invoicing / billing

·        After sales support

17.            What are the basic functions in sales order processing?

·        Inquiry handling

·        Quotation preparation and quotation

·        Contracts and contract management (order management)

·        Monitoring the sales transactions

·        Checking for availability

·        Transferring requirements to materials planning (MRP)

·        Scheduling the delivery

·        Calculating pricing and taxes

·        Checking credit limits

·        Invoicing / billing

·        Creating printed or electronically transmitted documents

18.            What are the subsystems in a sales and distribution module?

·        Master data management

·        Order management

·        Warehouse management

·        Shipping

·        Billing

·        Pricing

·        Sales support

·        Transportation

·        Foreign trade

19. Who are the main players in the ERP market?

SAP AG, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Baan, JD Edwards, QAD, Ramco, IFS, DataWorks etc.

PART B

1.     State the process of ERP software solutions?

a.     Analytical and reporting tool

b.    Latest technology and continuous upgrades

c.      Internet enabled ERP

d.    Customize for the needs

e.      User friendly

f.      Business specific models

g.     Multi organization, multi location, multi-currency and multi-lingual

h.    Automated information flows

i.       Integrated with third party applications

j.       Facilitate decision making

k.    Cost saving solutions

l.       Transparency in business process

m.  Improves speed

n.    Effective communication

o.     Competitive advantage

p.    Dealership and supplier management

q.    Supply chain management

r.      Customer relationship management

s.      Enterprise asset management (EAM)

t.       Project management

u.    Process control

v.     Advanced planning and optimization.

2.     How the vendor solutions are classified?

The different solutions are offered by the ERP vendors.

1.     Large vendor solutions

2.     Small vendor solutions

3.     Medium vendor solutions

4.     Vertical vendor solutions

3. State the objectives of Business process reengineering.

1. Customer centric

2. Reduces costs

3. Flexibility

4. Increases speed

5. Encourages creativity

6. Focuses on quality control

7. Productivity

4. Classify the features of BPR?

1. Enhances effective communication among the employees.

2. Focuses more on training and education of the employees.

3. Effective rethinking and reengineering of business process.

4. Enhances the decision making process for the managers and executives.

5. Accurate information system integration.

6. Consolidation of various activities into one component of the organization.

7. Multiple processes are done simultaneously in the organization.

8. Focused contact point is provided to customers.

9. Commitment to strong leadership

10.            Empowerment of the process in organization

11.            Emphasis on involvement of people in the organization.

12.            Review of motivation and reward system.

13.            Proper setting up of goals and performance measures.

14.            Suitable methodology to optimize the available resources.

5.     Explain the best practices of BPR:

1. Task elimination

2. Task modules

3. Integrated technology

4. Empowerment

5. Order management

6. Rearranging

7. Specialization

8. Data integration

9. Concurrent

10.            Optimization

11.            Alignment

12.            Traceable

13.            Outsource

14.            Project management

15.            Assign responsibility

16.            Customer centric

6.     Write down the steps involved in BPR?

1.     Objectives of Business process reengineering

2.     Simulation of the system

3.     Implementation of the system

4.     Examination and corrective measures

5.     Optimizing the results

6.     Redesigning the system if required.

07. State the various business modules in ERP system.

·        Human resources

·        Finance

·        Manufacturing

·        Plant maintenance

·        Sales & distribution

·        Materials management

·        Quality management

·        Production planning

8.     State the finance modules in most ERP systems.

·        Financial accounting

·        Investment management

·        Controlling

·        Treasury

·        Enterprise controlling

9.     State some major subsystems of manufacturing module.

·        Material and capacity planning

·        Shop floor control

·        Quality management

·        JIT / Repetitive manufacturing

·        Cost management

·        Tooling

10.            What are the basic functions in sales order processing?

·        Inquiry handling

·        Quotation preparation and quotation

·        Contracts and contract management (order management)

·        Monitoring the sales transactions

·        Checking for availability

·        Transferring requirements to materials planning (MRP)

·        Scheduling the delivery

·        Calculating pricing and taxes

·        Checking credit limits

·        Invoicing / billing

·        Creating printed or electronically transmitted documents

11.            What are the main modules of Materials Management module?

·        Pre-purchasing activities

·        Purchasing

·        Vendor evaluation

·        Inventory management

·        Invoice verification and material inspection