MEMORANDUM
Date: 03/18/09
Subject: Process Innovation, Organizational Agility and Information Technology
1. Introduction
The following memo attempts to depict the aspects of process and organizational innovation and change of two organizations, Nypro, Inc. and Dairy Farm Group (DFG). Nypro is a leading maker of precision custom injection molded plastic parts with 21 plants around the globe while DFG is a major food retailer with operations throughout main cities in the Asia-Pacific region. Both companies realized the importance of change and innovation of their processes in order to take advantage of an opportunity or simply to survive and furthermore to reaffirm themselves as leading companies in their industry.
2. Business Strategy
Both companies identified the importance of their customers and formulated their strategies according to customer needs. Nypro adopted a decentralized location strategy building its plants near its vital markets and respective customers. This strategy permitted each of its plant to tailor itself to the market it served. In addition, each plant was organized as a separate company with a board of directors composed of managers from other facilities in order to keep information on innovation flowing. Since each plant functions as a separate company, internal competition among all companies was common practice. In reality, many "felt that innovation was a result of competition."
The downside of Nypro's strategy was apparent when it came to innovation. The company had to strategize carefully on how to adopt innovation in 21 identical plants that acted pretty much independently from each other; consistency could be an issue. Basically, the plants had from 20 to 24 Nespal molding machines in dust-free clean rooms that all worked alike. Uniformity was achieved through processes that were implemented and controlled for deviations. However, innovation can bring deviations. Nypro was careful and everything...