3. How were the customers and vendors communicated with about the changed procedures for interfacing in various transactions with Whirlpool?

Whirlpool Corp. hopes a new e-commerce initiative, Easy EDI, will cut down supply chain expenses and enhance efficiencies. Easy EDI’s goal is twofold: to eliminate the paper process used by Whirlpool’s 300 smaller suppliers, and to save Whirlpool up to
U.S. $600,000 a year in operational costs for the electronic data interchange network used by Whirlpool’s 300 largest suppliers, says David Tibbitts, manager of strategy and planning in global procurement at Whirlpool.

At begin, Easy EDI will involve four small and midsize suppliers that rely on paper transactions to conduct business with Whirlpool’s fourteen North American manufacturing facilities. Four to six weeks later, the service will expand to about 30 suppliers. Whirlpool would like to gradually roll out Easy EDI to its largest suppliers. Easy EDI is an example of how the consumer-goods manufacturing industry is moving in the same direction as the automotive industry, says Susan Cournoyer, an analyst at Dataquest. Also, it will cut costs by internet and improve communications and responsiveness to customers.

4. How were IT employees prepared for interfacing with external consultants?

Late this year, Whirlpool Corp. plans to turn on SAP R/3 and link it to the Internet so retailers can place and track orders online. But that doesn’t mean the call-center workers who take orders over the phone will go away. In fact, their jobs will become more important—and more complex, said senior project manager Bob Briggs. Whirlpool isn’t the only company that’s still depending on its call center while moving more routine business transactions to the Web. Generally speaking, the nature of the work by IT employees has changed, but its importance goes up.