Scenario: Sollace Manufacturing -
Sollace Manufacturing is a major supplier in the automotive industry, headquartered In Cleveland, Ohio with manufacturing plants in Chicago, Sao Paulo,
Stuttgart, Yokohama, and Seoul. Each of these plants has been operating its own planning and production scheduling systems, as well as custom developed applications that drive the automated production equipment at each plant.
Sollace Manufacturing is implementing lean manufacturing principles to minimize waste and improve the efficiency of all of its production operations. During a recent exercise held for internal quality improvement, it was determined that a significant reduction in process waste could be achieved by replacing the current planning and scheduling systems with a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system located in the Cleveland data center. This central system would provide support to each of the plants replacing the functionality in the existing systems. It would also eliminate the need for full data centers at each of the plant facilities. A reduced number of IT staff could support the remaining applications. In some cases, a third-party contractor could provide those staff. The Sollace
Manufacturing Enterprise Architecture department has been operating for several years and has mature, well-developed architecture governance and development processes that are strongly based on TOGAF 9. At a recent meeting, the Architecture Review Board approved a Request for Architecture Work from the Chief Engineer of Global Manufacturing Operations who is the project sponsor. The request covered the initial architectural investigations and the development of a comprehensive architecture to plan the transformation. The Common ERP Deployment architecture project team has now been formed, and the project team has been asked to develop an Architecture Vision that will achieve the desired outcomes and benefits. Some of the plant managers have expressed concern about the security and reliability of driving their planning and production scheduling from a central system located in Cleveland. The Chief Engineer wants to know how these concerns can be addressed.
You are serving as the Lead Enterprise Architect for the Common ERP Deployment architecture project. One of the earliest initiatives in the Enterprise
Architecture program at Sollace Manufacturing was the definition of a set of IT principles and architecture principles that are well aligned with the overall enterprise principles. These now need to be updated to address the concerns raised.
You have been asked to select a set of principles most appropriate for guiding the team to define a robust solution. [Note: You should assume that Sollace
Manufacturing has adopted the example set of principles that are listed and defined in TOGAF 9, Section 23.6.] Based on TOGAF 9, which of the following is the best answer?