Mercedes Benz's E-Biz Solution: The Factory Delivery Reservation System

The Design of FDRS

The FDRS program was proposed in the first quarter of 1998. In the third quarter of 1998, MBUSI entered into a contract with IBM. A development team was constituted with IBM Global Solutions specialists and IBM e-commerce developers, who worked closely with MBUSI. The program became operational by the first quarter of 1999. The IT team at MBUSI had a clear set of functional specifications for FDRS. However, they relied on IBM to transform the concept into an e-business solution. The FDRS was designed in such a way that customers buying the M-Class SUV could specify that will take delivery of their new vehicle at the factory.

They could place the order at any of the 355 Mercedes Benz dealers in the US. An authorized employee at the dealership entered the factory delivery order the web interface.

Timing was the most important aspect of the FDRS'functionality, as it was closely linked with MBUSI's vehicle production schedule. Mercedes Benz United States of America (MBUSA)⁸, based in Montvale, NJ, was the first link in the FDRS program.

It was the point where the dealer actually placed the order. MBUSA's role was to coordinate the distribution of vehicles to dealers across the country. Later, it had to add the order to the company's Baan Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)⁹ system, which scheduled the order for production.

About three months before the production date, the dealer could schedule in a window, the date and time of arrival of the customer at the factory for delivery. The window was then automatically computed by the FDRS to give the dealer, the possible delivery dates.

Apart from the delivery date, the customer could also specify the accessories for the car and also request a factory tour. FDRS was based on Lotus Domino (Refer Exhibit I), Lotus Enterprise Integrator¹⁰ and IBM Netfinity servers. It also interfaced with IBM S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, Model 9672-R45 located in Montvale, NJ (Refer Figure I). There were two Domino servers – an IBM Netfinity 5500 and an IBM Netfinity 3000.

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8] MBUSA is the wholly owned US subsidiary of DaimlerChrylser.

9] ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments' particular needs.

10] A server-based data distribution product that enables data exchange between Lotus Domino and a number of host and relational applications.

Case Details

Case Code : ITSY009
Themes: e-Supply Chain Management
Case Length : 06 Pages
Period : 1990-2001
Organization : SciQuest.com
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : USA
Industry : Information Technology (Electronic Commerce)

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