Harley Davidson Motor Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Harley Davidson Motor Company - Case Study Example And as changes go there are always internal considerations when trying to improve or transform systems into something that better serves its needs and purpose. This is explicitly pointed out in the case presented by Austin et al. (2003) in his paper on Harley Davidson’s Enterprise Software Selection. This paper will look at the In 1996, under Garry Berryman’s supervision, the purchasing organization of the Harley Davidson Motor Company (HDMC) have began development of Supply Management Strategy (SMS), a system which ensures that the company’s productivity increases by having the correct quality supplies on time by treating suppliers as an extension of the company itself. () In this effect, the HDCM, through long and rigorous evaluations of proposals and standoffs with the approving committee, have opted to form a team to select the appropriate software provider to enable SMS within the company. Austin et al. () provided two sets of data in his account of the selection process. One set of data consisted of the self-assessed rating of the functionality of the software of the top 3 providers being taken into consideration for partnership. The other consisted of a qualitative data, factors highlighting the provider’s latent understanding of HDMC’s values and needs, evaluated by the selection team. The self-assessed rating of the providers showed very competitive scores between the three top software providers being taken into consideration. Based on their ratings, Provider 2 had the greatest potential for selection as a partner by Harley Davidson. Provider 2 has about 98.69%, Provider 3 with 96.83% while Provider 1 falls short with only 93.44% rating. Simply looking into this data one would be inclined to the idea of selecting Provider 2 because of its high self-assessed rating. However, this presents a highly complicated dilemma concerning the viability information gathered. Although it may seem that all three providers are competent and capable to impart above 90% functionality of their respective software, it should be noted that the data provided in this ratings were self-assessed.