Rolls-Royce is one of the world's largest manufacturers of the gas turbines that are used to propel civil aircraft, military aircraft, ships, and in power generation as well as many other uses. They are exceptionally complex products, typically with around 25,000 parts and hundreds of assemblies and sub-assemblies. Their production is equally complex with over 600 external suppliers and thousands of work centres in many different locations, which is why Rolls-Royce was one of the earliest users of computers to help with planning. Traditionally the company had developed its own software; however, this had become increasingly expensive compared with buying off-the-shelf systems. It was also risky because customized and complex software could be difficult to update and often could not exchange or share data. So the company decided to implement a standard ERP system from the market-leading German SAP company. Because it was a 'commercial' off-the-shelf system it would force the company to adopt a standardized approach. Also it would fully integrate all the company's systems and updates would be made available by SAP. Finally, the whole organization would be able to use a single database, reducing duplication and errors. The database modules included product information, resource information (plant assets, capacities of machines, all human resource data, etc.), inventory, external suppliers, order-processing information and external sales. Yet the company knew that many ERP implementations had been expensive disasters. 'We were determined to ensure that this did not happen in Rolls- Royce,' said Julian Goulder, who led the implementation. 'The project was too important to us; it was the largest single element within our strategic investment plan. So we had a core technical team that led the design of the systems and a large implementation team that was spread around the businesses. We always made sure that we communicated the changes throughout the company and used extensive education and training. We also phased the implementation to avoid any risky "big-bang" approach. There was an extensive data "clean-up" to ensure accuracy and integrity of existing information, and all existing processes were reviewed and standardized. In fact, this implementation forced us to re-examine all of our processes, to make sure that they fitted the SAP system. Within operations we have already seen a significant reduction in inventory, improved customer service and substantially improved business information and controls.

Question: Consider the attached case study "SAP at Rolls Royce" & list the benefits and disadvantages of implementing SAP over using a proprietary system.