'The accounting 'economics' of innovation Essay

'The accounting 'economics' of innovation - Essay Example Success in these 2 markets depended on product quality, price, availability, and on-time delivery. Currently, with the wide scope of Whirlpool’s operations, it has disjointed information systems implemented in the various business units which hamper the company’s success in meeting its customer and operations requirements. To remedy this, Whirlpool is evaluating the plan to implement a company-wide enterprise resource planning system, called Project Atlantic. The cost of Project Atlantic is sizeable both in financial and non-financial terms. A rigorous capital investment appraisal, both quantitative and qualitative need to be conducted before embarking on the project (Case Resource). Question 1: Summarize the main factors that Whirlpool Corp needs to take into account when deciding whether to invest in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems named Project Atlantic. Your summary should include: Whirlpool Corp’s Project Atlantic is an undertaking to design and implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that would allow the company to better serve its consumer and contract markets for appliances, as well as reduce its inventory by 12 days of sales. Enterprise resources are the manpower, machines and materials necessary for business operations and which have to be properly allocated and utilized to achieve business objectives. The main factors that Whirlpool Corp needs to take into account to decide whether to invest in Project Atlantic are the benefits that can be derived from the project; the costs of design, implementation and maintenance; whether benefits outweigh the costs and when will the company get payback from the ERP systems; how long will the process of designing and implementing take and what external and internal resources are necessary; and what changes need to be undertaken by the company to enable the new systems to fit in, how will