Sony Barcelona Plant (C)

This is the third of a three-case series (906-041-1 to 906-043-1). The cases describe the ERP (enterprise resource planning) implementation in Sony Barcelona Plant within a major project initiative called STAR with the aim to standardise processes and information systems in all production plants in Europe: Barcelona (Spain), Pencoed (UK) and Stuttgart (Germany). The point of view is from the Barcelona Plant. While there are many cases describing ERP implementation, project and risk management, very few cover success an failure in the same setting. In this case series we show success and failure factors within the same project and we get into the 'black box' of a decisional process. In addition we link strategy, organisational change and information systems' value assessment. Case (C) shows the final success of Barcelona, giving some figures in order to prompt students to think about information systems' value assessment. To that matter we stress the importance of strategy and organisational change: from an automated plant to a flexible and 'informated' production plant.