TUGASAN

SEPTEMBER 2014 SEMESTER

KOD KURSUS

NAMA KURSUS

PROGRAM

NAMA PELAJAR

NO. MATRIK

NAMA FASILITATOR

AKADEMIK

PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN

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INTRODUCTION

Management Information Systems (MIS) is the study of people, technology, organizations and

the relationships among them. MIS professionals help firms realize maximum benefit from

investment in personnel, equipment, and business processes. MIS is a people oriented field with

an emphasis on service through technology. If you have an interest in technology and have the

desire to use technology to improve people’s lives, a degree in MIS may be for you.

Businesses use information systems at all levels of operation to collect, process and store data.

Management aggregates and disseminates this data in the form of information needed to carry

out the daily operations of business. Everyone who works in business, from someone who pays

the bills to the person who makes employment decisions, uses information systems. A car

dealership could use a computer database to keep track of which products sell best. A retail store

might use a computer-based information system to sell products over the Internet. In fact, many

businesses concentrate on the alignment of MIS with business goals to achieve competitive

advantage over other businesses.

The initial concept of MIS was to process data from the organization and presents it in the form

of reports at regular intervals. The system was largely capable of handling the data from

collection to processing. It was more impersonal, requiring each individual to pick and choose

the processed data and use it for his requirements. This concept was further modified when a

distinction was made between data and information. The information is a product of an analysis

of data. This concept is similar to a raw material and the finished product. What are needed are

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information and not mas of data. However, the data can be analyzed in a number of ways,

producing different shades and specifications of the information as a product. It was, therefore,

demanded that the system concept be an individual- oriented, as each individual may have a

different orientation towards the information. This concept was further modified, that the system

should present information in such a form and format that it creates an impact on its user,

provoking a decision or an investigation. It was later realized then even though such an impact

was a welcome modification, some sort of selective approach was necessary in the analysis and

reporting. Hence, the concept of exception reporting was imbibed in MIS is the norm for an

exception.

MIS professionals create information systems for data management. In addition, they manage

various information systems to meet the needs of managers, staff and customers. By working

collaboratively with various members of their work group, as well as with their customers and

clients, MIS professionals are able to play a key role in areas such as information security,

integration and exchange. As an MIS major, you will learn to design, implement and use

business information systems in innovative ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of

your company.

A common misconception is that MIS only concerns programming. However, programming is

just a small part of the MIS curriculum. While programming concepts represent some of the

founding concepts and information systems development, implementation and use, many jobs in

MIS do not utilize programming at all. A large portion of the MIS degree focuses on data

analysis, teamwork, leadership, project management, customer service and underlying business

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theories. These aspects of the degree are what set the MIS professional apart from a computer

science specialist.

BACKGROUND OF PROTON

Based on the task, this project have chosen that Proton Holdings Berhad as the organization

which will be studied and explore. It has been the largest automotive brand in Southeast Asia.

For decades, Proton has strived to distinguish PROTON from others by reflecting the quality and

persevering in perfecting the brand and product design, in order to become a global automotive

player. Below is the well-known Proton Holdings Berhad assorted logo.

However since the evolvement of the Proton Holdings Berhad, they have change their logo

throughout the years. Below are the transformation of Proton’ logo.

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Proton’s factory is situated in Industrial Area HICOM , Batu Tiga, Shah Alam which had opened

on 9 Julai 1985 and launched by the Prime Minister YAB Tun. Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad.

After 20 years of operation, Proton has launched another factory at Tanjung Malim, Perak which

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has been launched by Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. On 2 Ogos 2008, Proton has

celebrated a 3 million cars production.

Proton Organization History

Perusahan Otomobil Nasional Berhad (PROTON) was incorporated in May 7, 1983 to

manufacture, assemble and sell motor vehicles and related products, including accessories, spare

parts and other components. PROTON produced Malaysia's first car, the Proton Saga,

commercially launched on July 9, 1985 by then Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir

Mohamed, who had originally conceived the idea of a Malaysian car.

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Proton Saga Launching on 9 Julai 1985

Its model line-up includes the Waja, Satria GTi, Wira, Iswara, Arena, Perdana V6 and Juara. The

range of 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 litre engines satisfies a wide spectrum of customers both

locally and abroad. PROTON's main plant in Shah Alam, with an area of 923 900 sq metres, was

originally designed for a capacity of 80 000 units per year. In 1997, capacity increased to 230

000 units per year with the construction of the Medium Volume Factory, which is next to the

Main Plant. Today, the Shah Alam factory is capable of producing 240 000 vehicles per year.

Besides being shareholders, Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation are also

PROTON's technical assistance partner and component supplier. PROTON has a total of 11

subsidiaries and 11 associate companies, which are involved in manufacturing, research and

development, sales and service activities.

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December 30, 1996, marked the launch of the Proton Putra, a two-door coupe, as well the

production of our millionth car from the Shah Alam plant. PROTON made a major step in

upgrading its engineering capabilities with the acquisition of Lotus Group International Limited,

a British automotive engineering company and manufacturer of luxury sports cars in October

1996. Together, PROTON and Lotus offer large scale manufacturing capabilities with world-

class engineering expertise.

PROTON cars are making their mark internationally as competitive and innovative automobiles.

They are now being exported to 50 countries including the highly competitive United Kingdom

and continental European markets. With concerted and unswerving commitment from customers,

business associates, shareholders, government agencies, and employees, PROTON is realising its

goal of being an internationally successful Malaysian automotive manufacturer.

It is achieving this by being customer oriented and by producing competitively priced and

innovative products. Thus, it is contributing to Malaysia's attainment of Vision 2020. With solid

base built up over the last 10 years, Malaysia's car manufacturing industry is progressing

vigorously.

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MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM OF PROTON

A management information system (MIS) is a computerized database of management

information in PROTON are organized and programmed in such a way that it produces regular

reports on operations for every level of management in a company. It is usually also possible to

obtain special reports from the system easily. The main purpose of the MIS in PROTON is to

give the managers feedback about their own performance; top management can monitor the

company as a whole. Information displayed by the MIS typically shows the actual data of

PROTON over against planned results and results from a year before thus it measures progress

against goals.

The MIS of PROTON receives data from the company units and functions. Some of the data are

collected automatically from computer linked checkout counters of PROTON whereby others are

keyed in at periodic intervals. Routine reports are preprogrammed and run at intervals or on

demand while others are obtained using built-in query languages in the organization of PROTON

whereby display functions built into the system are used by managers to check on status at desk-

side computers connected to the MIS by networks. Many sophisticated systems in PROTON also

need to be monitored and displayed the performance of the company's stock.

Since Proton Holdings Berhad is the most establish company in Malaysia, they have used and

own also the most establish MIS to be operate successfully throughout the evolvement of the

company within this 25 years. Proton has been used SAP MIS in whole developing and

production process.

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Before we look closer to the SAP system of PROTON, we first need to know that PROTON has

its own policy towards the system used. Based on the interviewee, in order to have the system to

operate, the program must be in MySQL language. Even though PROTON is a big production

company, they still choose to use MySQL language because it is an open source program and it

is cheaper compared to Oracle which is licensed and expensive. Another things about PROTON

is that previously most of the PROTON system involve UNIX operation system but now they are

moving forward in using the Microsoft operation system.

Since PROTON is a large corporation, they also have three data center to support the capacity of

the data and each act as backup data center for the other. This data center is situated in Shah

Alam, Tanjung Malim and OUE. This data center has 1 high-end server that integrates with 7

servers. Previously, Proton only has 3 servers to operate but due to high demand in the

production process they bought another 4 server.

Through all this 25 years of evolvement, PROTON has used 3 systems which are INTRA, .net

and SAP. SAP in a new implemented system in PROTON which have been currently operate for

3 to 4 years. This system is used in order to replace the INTRA and .net systems that have been

used for about 5 to 6 years and not sufficient enough to meet the latest technology. Besides this

big operational system, PROTON allows each division in the company to have their own system

but still they have to integrate it with the SAP system.

This is due to the needs and requirements involve in each division. Any new created project will

have their own division to run. However, PROTON still provides or allows some system to be

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created internally by the Information System of PROTON division. In order to do this, the

proposal has to be submitted to the Procurement Council so that they have their budget either to

outsourcing it or made internally. Members of the council are include the board of directors and

senior Information Technology Management team.

Now let us look at the SAP system used by Proton Holdings Berhad. SAP or System Application

Programming is a German global software corporation that provides enterprise software

applications and support to businesses of all sizes globally. Headquartered in Walldorf,

Germany, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the largest enterprise software

company in the world (as of 2009).

It is the world-leading provider of business solutions & operates in Kuala Lumpur since 1992. It

is also the largest software company in Europe and the fourth largest globally. The company's

best known products are its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) and SAP Business

Objects software. Besides PROTON, Petronas Company also use this system to manage their

productivity and this German company has over 500 clients that use SAP system in Malaysia.

We are focusing in SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) only. PROTON uses this SAP

ERP because it manages 4 major components such as:

Money

Material

Manufacturing

Machines

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Despite these components as said above, PROTON chooses SAP in the ERP that function

towards below criteria which its roles and responsibilities provides a big portion of influence

towards PROTON as a whole:

Finance

Material

Quality

Maintenance and HR

Production

So based on Proton Holdings Berhad demands above, they have been used several SAP systems

such as below:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

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Example of the integration with other Information System in the organization

Based on the picture above, we can see the integration within the Information System owned by

PROTON. Since PROTON mainly used the SAP system. From here, we can see that the main

SAP system which is situated in Shah Alam has to be integrating the result or data wih the SAP

from Casting Plant department which situated at Glenmarie, Shah Alam and also combine with

the SAP system at Tanjung Malim. This structure shows to us how the integration happens in the

company using SAP PI. The yellow boxes are the systems that operate to produce the specific

focus.

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Specific IS system exploration

We are going to focus on SAP PI which means that we are focusing on SAP Process Integration

system. SAP using PI, allow the system to:

Enabling Application-to-Application Processes

Enabling Business-to-Business Processes

Business Process Management

Enabling Enterprise Services

According to PROTON, they had been using this SAP PI to integrate throughout the process and

the system in all PROTON division.

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Obviously, there must be reasonable purposes for PROTON in using this system integration

throughout its division. With the usage type PI, Proton can integrate applications from one or

multiple systems. SAP differentiates between the following areas:

Cross-system application integration, which does not focus on individual end-user

actions. Applications can be company-internal, cross-company, SAP or non-SAP

applications. The SAP NetWeaver usage type PI incorporates all functions that were

previously a part of SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI).

The modeling, administration, and automation of user-driven processes within SAP

systems. From a technical viewpoint, a core function of the runtime is that you can save

the state of a previously-modeled process and call it up at a later stage, if the process is to

be continued as a result of a particular action or event. Since the execution of processes

can be useful when integrating applications across system boundaries (without user

actions), relevant functions within SAP NetWeaver are reused for this purpose. Together,

the functions referred to here are known as Business Process Management.

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However, the diagram below will show how PROTON has the integration within the SAP PI

system. So based on this diagram, PROTON can ensure that the flow of data and the production

that happen in the whole system are integrated accordingly with the guidelines and procedures as

stated in the system as a whole.

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ADOPTION OF NEW SYSTEM IN PROTON

PROTON Holdings Bhd has started using its web-based product data management (PDM)

system to enable its 1,500 engineers to save up to 75% in time taken to develop products, said

chief executive officer Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff. The solution will allow

information to be easily available during the product-design cycle, as well as to improve

communications and collaboration among participants in the development process.

The Product Data Management (PDM) system is an improvement from existing systems used by

Proton, which was restricted to its Shah Alam headquarters. The system will be linked with all

the manufacturing facilities in Shah Alam and Tanjung Malim. It will also allow local engineers

to have a real-time communication with overseas design and engineering centers, such as

Britain-based Lotus Engineering and MV Agusta Italy, for global sharing and management of

engineering data.

The Product Data Management (PDM) system would help reduce costs in maintaining a

connection infrastructure between the Shah Alam and Tanjung Malim facilities. The

infrastructure connection from Shah Alam to Tanjung Malim cost about RM250,000 annually.

The Process of PROTON

Developing a completely new vehicle is a complex and highly detailed process, usually taking 36

months from initial concept stage, to the production of a road-worthy model. PROTON’s state-

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of-the-art facilities combined with the expertise of Proton engineers mean the process of

developing new models has been reduced to 24 months.

The Research and Development facility, where the dreams of the nation are transformed into

reality, provides a complete and comprehensive range of engineering services both for the

automotive industry as well as for engineering consultancy for any industry requiring Research

and Development expertise.

As one of the engines of growth for the country, PROTON has the responsibility to contribute

towards the industrialization of the nation. The facilities and expertise available at PROTON’s

Research and Development facility provides Malaysia with the capability to lead the way by

offering a complete range of engineering solutions to both local and foreign companies.

Every new vehicle development begins with Concept Formulation: a brainstorming process

placing you, the consumer, at the center of the idea which is trying to forecast exactly what you

will expect and need from your car, through studying styling trends and product segmentation,

several years before you’re even started thinking about buying it. Idea Sketches are hand-drawn

and modeled using computer tools. Miniature Scale (1:3 ratios) is built, and upon concept

approval, the concept will progress to the Design Development phase.

The design development phase is the development begins to fill in the details of the concept car,

supported by sophisticated digitizing layout planning computer modeling software which creates

external surface (A-surface) data for form and shape.

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A 1:1 full-size scale model is built, finished and painted, and if this is approved, a Styling-

Engineering Feasibility study examines the practicality of body engineering and car internal

systems installations, while 3D computer modeling adds refinements to the computer simulated

model, together with internal surface data (B-surface).

ADVANTAGES OF THE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR PROTON

In accordance with the Senior Manager of Information Technology division in Proton Holdings

Berhad, SAP is a proven process and has been used internally or world-wide. Besides that it has

a shorter time of development for either a ready-made system and customizes system because

some of the system is ready made by the German company. The SAP system has never been

corrupted in the entire runtime process compare to other supporting system that used to be

corrupted due to the lack of maintaining.

SAP system is also used because of its high effectiveness in reporting tools. Previously Proton

used Crystal Report Tools to generate the report but this tool only generates report but do not

have any input data area process. Meanwhile, the SAP system provides the input data area and at

the same time generates the report. It is also have the best support system and provide the

support and backup all the time for the Proton.

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Besides the main SAP system, Proton also use SAP ERP. The advantage that Proton choose SAP

ERP is because:

SAP is a powerful tool that integrates multiple business processes and functions into one

comprehensive system.

SAP reduces lack of integration across business line which will raise the risk of

duplication, mistakes and inconsistency data.

SAP provides different approach than their competitors in market. Each piece (module

like FI, MM, SD) can operate independently from all other software. And the key benefit

of using this approach is that companies can implement individual module that fits the

company needs, and have the flexibility to add other module later when their business

grows.

It is important to note that a MIS should not only indicate the status of a business’s conditions,

but also indicate why the conditions are improving or deteriorating. For example, a MIS of

PROTON should report performance relative to cost and profitable or unprofitable projects,

while identifying individual accountability in both current and past.

This can be done only if such reports are based on constantly updated information accessible to

those in authority who are responsible for assessing and assuring it is used for timely decision-

making.

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BENEFITS OF MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN PROTON

Often the intangible benefits of system information management are the critical point in the

course of business of a company's wheel. Because it is intangible, the following aspects are often

overlooked or not detected.

Therefore, I would like to highlight some benefits that could bring PROTON towards more

competitive in the future with its strong Management Information System that could help it to

thrive throughout the nation with the vision 2020 slogan and together with the world’s

development and globalization.

1. Increased customer satisfaction

Good management information system will speed up the process so that, the time required to

serve a customer can be faster.

2. Improved quantity and quality of information

Information is an important component of business today. Who controls the information would

act more responsive to changes and trends in the future. Application of good information system

will certainly generate reports compilation of data that is managed by qualified and

comprehensive database. This can be achieved for each of the reporting process is executed

automatically by computer machines. The quality of the information in the organization of

PROTON is crucial as it is expanding its business throughout the years.

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3. Improved quality and quantity management decisions

It is inevitable that any decision-making relies heavily on information that supports the policy to

be taken. It can only be realized if information systems can provide information that is relevant,

accurate and current can be retrieved at any time.

4. Improved quality and responsiveness number of the competitor’s condition

Aspects of business intelligence are very important since a long time with a variety of formats

and needs. To reach the point of rapid and appropriate response on the dynamics of the

competition will require information systems that can collect, analyze and compile the

information needed by decision makers in the company.

5. Improved operational efficiency and flexibility

All business owners would want these. The more efficient and flexibly an operational then this

indicate the low cost to run it. This can be achieved due to cut the bureaucracy in the company

after the implementation of good information systems.

6. Improved quality of internal and external communications

A good information system must be supported by electronic data communication network

systems that are reliable as well. With the application of good information systems, each party

both inside and outside the company can exchange information more effectively and efficiently.

This is a crucial element for PROTON as it is becoming the nation’s premiere automobile brand

which holds many vendors which needs better and improved communication systems.

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7. Improved quality of planning

Planning is an essential process for businesses. However, any plan that will be made then of

course needed the support of adequate information into practice. If not then the plan may be

disoriented and did not reach its target because of mistake information into its base.

8. Improved quality control and supervision.

With the information system is built and maintained properly then any activity within the

business environment can be constantly monitored. Monitoring is certainly an impact on

improving control over every procedure and activities occurring within the company.

CONCLUSION

Management information systems have changed the dynamics of running businesses efficiently.

Decentralization is one of the biggest advantages; it allows monitoring of operations at low

levels and frees up resources for departmental managers to devote time to strategic activities.

Coordination of specialized projects and activities is much better and decision makers in the

organization are aware of issues and problems in all departments. Another advantage of MIS is

that it minimizes information overload, which can be quite common with conventional

businesses in the modern era.

MIS has to be designed and managed in such way that it aggregates information, monitors the

company's activities and operations and enhances communication and collaboration among

employees. This ensures better planning for all activities and better ways to measure

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performance, manage resources and facilitate compliance with industry and government

regulations. Control helps in forecasting, preparing accurate budgets and providing the tools and

vital information to employees, top management and business partners.

The purpose of MIS is to generate synthesized and processed information from computerized

and automated and certain manual systems. Information distribution to all levels of corporate

managers, professionals and key executives becomes quite seamless with streamlined MIS.

Managers are able to make quick, timely and informed decisions. Top management and board

members can take strategic decisions, plan future growth and business expansion activities based

on the data and information generated by MIS.

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Nonaka, I. and H. Takeuchi. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Oxford University Press:NewYork.

Sullivan, Laurie (2004). “Heavyweight Retailer Looks Inward to Stay Innovative in Business Technology.” InformationWeek, 27 September 2004.

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Korfage, Robert R. and Delutis,Thomas G. (2006), "A basis for time and cost evaluation system of information". In The Information Bazzar.

O'Brien, James (2004), "Management Information System". New Delhi:TMH, p;527.

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