Tools and methods supporting automation – case Wärtsilä ERP landscape
Holsti, Jaana (2017)
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017060813038
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017060813038
Tiivistelmä
The goal for this thesis was to collect information of Wärtsilä’s ERP landscape related automation tools to understand how they are or could be utilized to serve business and IT processes better and in what kind of potential new use cases the tools are best fit for. The aim was to create a view to the automation topic overall, understand the existing limitations that prohibit the development of the tools and practices and to get the understanding of the level of automation, how the tools are linked to either business or IT processes. From those the future development suggestions were concluded on both automation tools development side, enhancing the present processes the tools are closely linked to, some new potential use cases as well as on the methods to be used.
The study was made by making observations based on chosen theoretical frameworks, Lean and ITIL. Lean is a way of thinking and acting for an entire organization with the aim on simplifying processes by focusing on the value adding activities and minimizing unnecessary work and delays. ITIL is the collection of the best practices based on the practical experience of organizations around the world and it is the most widely accepted approach to providing IT services. These two theories have similarities to complement each other in this study as both target to better flow efficiency in the organization.
The approach to this study was a qualitative case study. Qualitative study is best applied in situations when there is no or very limited information of the subject, a need to have a deep understanding of the topic and to create new development suggestions or models based on findings. Case study method was utilized as I had delimited the target of the research to Wärtsilä’s automation related ERP tools. The case study research usually starts from the problem in question, not only from the theories. This applied to this study as well as the theory foundation developed during the data collection phase. Both approaches, qualitative study and case study are applicable to the way the research was done, what was the studied subject and to what kind of end-result was targeted at.
The study was made by making observations based on chosen theoretical frameworks, Lean and ITIL. Lean is a way of thinking and acting for an entire organization with the aim on simplifying processes by focusing on the value adding activities and minimizing unnecessary work and delays. ITIL is the collection of the best practices based on the practical experience of organizations around the world and it is the most widely accepted approach to providing IT services. These two theories have similarities to complement each other in this study as both target to better flow efficiency in the organization.
The approach to this study was a qualitative case study. Qualitative study is best applied in situations when there is no or very limited information of the subject, a need to have a deep understanding of the topic and to create new development suggestions or models based on findings. Case study method was utilized as I had delimited the target of the research to Wärtsilä’s automation related ERP tools. The case study research usually starts from the problem in question, not only from the theories. This applied to this study as well as the theory foundation developed during the data collection phase. Both approaches, qualitative study and case study are applicable to the way the research was done, what was the studied subject and to what kind of end-result was targeted at.