The Vice President of Manufacturing and Logistics of the LockStep Manufacturing Company has read Nicholas Carr's article in the Harvard Business Review: "IT doesn't Matter". He is impressed. LockStep is under cost pressure and is short of funding for projects to renew and upgrade manufacturing facilities. The VP Manufacturing is competing for funds with the CIO. The CIO has budgeted for maintenance, equipment and several new development projects. The VP wants to buy new manufacturing equipment, upgrade operating practices and improve quality.
As the CIO, respond to the arguments of Carr as a counter to the Manufacturing VP. You should identify Carr's specific arguments. Your response should be addressed both to the Manufacturing VP and to the CEO of LockStep. This means you should not only respond to criticisms of IT as described by Carr, but identify IT enabled upgrades to manufacturing. You should also explain the corporate benefit from IT enabled business opportunities. Your case should be structured to demonstrate benefits to LockStep of sustaining the IT function. Remember the CEO has responsibility for corporate profitability.
Additional Requirement
This types of question is a part of Operations Management and they describe about upgrading manufacturing. In this question, upgrades to manufacturing, especially IT enabled upgrades have been discussed. The reimbursement of having an IT enabled upgrade for manufacturing have been discussed in the solution.
Word limit 400