ERP & Organizational Change: a study of the supply chain in the food industry

Sammanfattning: ERP-systems have become a vital part in the modern economy. However, to achieve a high level of information integration between business units, ERP-systems have sacrificed flexibility. As organizations are constantly changing it may be questioned whether the ERP-systems are supporting or restricting the organizations during their change process. In this study we have aimed to clarify the relationships between the organization and the ERP-system from a change and alignment perspective. In order to investigate this relationship we made a descriptive study where we developed a theoretical framework. This framework guided us through several interviews at three companies operating within the food industry. We identified that changes were mainly driven by the organizations but could be initated from the ERP-system as well. Moreover organizational contingencies turned out to have a critical role in putting different change demands on the ERP-system. Lastly a pattern was distingushed for how changes within the supply chain organization were conducted, where the ERP-system was identified as an enabler.