This paper reports on a comparative case study of 13 industrial firms that had implemented an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Firms were compared based on their dialectical learning process. All firms had to overcome knowledge barriers of two types: those associated with the configuration of the ERP package, and those associated with the assimilation of new work processes. We examined the mechanisms through which firms attempted to overcome each type of knowledge barrier. We also observed different ERP implementation approaches: piecemeal and concerted. In the former approach, firms concentrated on the technology first and on process changes second. In the latter approach, both the technology and the process changes were tackled together. The learning challenges associated with each of these approaches were found to be different. Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, Process Theory, IT implementation, Dialectics of Change, Organizational Learning. ii 3 1. INTRODUCTION ...

The explosion of the Internet has affected many facets of work style in the manufacturing industry; yet all indications are that the revolution is still in its infancy. Manufacturing enterprises need to reshape their working model in order to sustain a competitive edge in this global manufacturing era. An Internet-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) is crucial to the continuous development of a manufacturing enterprise. Accordingly, in this paper, the authors propose an implementation model called Web-based Object-Oriented Model (WOOM) to implement an ERP system under a global perspective, which provides the framework, channel and the interface necessary to build a Webbased ERP system in a global business environment. The proposed model aims to provide a basis for the manufacturers to implement ERP in a systematic manner. By using advanced development techniques, a sophisticated, yet easy to use, building model that provides a total solution for all areas of a global ERP system has been implemented.