Anthony Model

Anthony Model

In 1965, Anthony and other business management research experts studied European and American manufacturing Through 15 years of extensive practical observation and verification of large-scale enterprises, a theory of manufacturing operation and management business processes and its information system architecture was created, which is the famous “Anthony model”. This theory believes that operation and management business activities, that is, enterprise management systems, can be divided into There are three levels: strategic planning, tactical decision-making and business decision-making (see Figure 1).

(1) Strategic Planning Layer (SPL, Strategic Planning Layer): It is the top management and refers to plans, plans, etc. such as the setting and changes of corporate organizational goals and the resource policies adopted to achieve the goals. budget process.

(2) Tactical decision-making layer (TDL, TacticsDecisionLayer): Also called the management control layer, it is the middle management layer. It is a specific process to achieve corporate goals and enable the company to effectively obtain and utilize resources.

(3) Business processing layer (BTL, BusinessTreatmentLayer): Also called the operation control layer, it is the lower management layer and is the entire process to determine that a specific business can be executed effectively and efficiently.

In the “Anthony Model”, for the first time, the manufacturing enterprise management system is regarded as a whole enterprise business activity with operating resources as the basic element, and it systematically describes the information flow, funds inside and outside the enterprise The delivery and reception process of flow and logistics (see Figure 2).

Anthony et al. conducted a large number of observations and analyzes on manufacturing enterprises that mainly focus on assembly and processing business and found that their management system business processes include the two-way flow of logistics, capital flow and information flow and their basic laws. First of all, the logistics process is generally reflected in the entire process from purchasing parts to selling products. It flows from upstream to downstream, first from suppliers to enterprises, then to wholesalers, retailers and customers, that is, the needs of enterprises After parts procurement, allocation, production and processing, delivery, sales and other business processes, at the same time, before the enterprise carries out the above-mentioned allocation or procurement of parts processes, suppliers such as parts manufacturers and raw material processors are also conducting sales activities; before the enterprise Before conducting sales activities, wholesalers and retailers are also conducting purchasing activities. The process of capital flow is opposite to that of logistics. It flows from downstream to upstream, that is, from customers to retailers and wholesalers, then to enterprises (or directly to enterprises), and then to suppliers. Furthermore, compared with logistics, capital flow, etc., the flow process of information flow is much more complicated. Enterprise information mainly includes ordering information, shipping information, revenue and expenditure information, etc. While information flow complements logistics and capital flow, it also plays a role in managing the overall activities of the enterprise. It is not difficult to see that what Anthony described is actually a panoramic view of the supply chain.

The management information system (MIS, ManagementInformationSystem) proposed by Anthony It is a system that determines and provides effective information for the three levels of the proposed enterprise management system: strategic planning layer, tactical decision-making layer and business decision-making layer. The system structure is shown in Figure 1. Anthony first described the basic process of information provided by the management information system MIS, namely: MIS obtains information from the environment through interaction with customers and trading partners, stores the information in the database, and then provides it to the management system defined by Anthony. The three levels of transmitting information. Taking the combination of transaction processing and decision-making systems as a management information system, the “Anthony Model” theory regards MIS as an information system based on business transactions that can provide fixed-form information.

Anthony believes that “Enterprise management information system (MIS) is an enterprise management planning and control system based on the ‘information’ resources involved in enterprise operations. It supports the operation and management activities of the enterprise and is used in various aspects of the enterprise. When making decisions at different levels, the management of ‘information’ resources plays an important role. At the same time, computer-based information systems play an important role in improving and optimizing the Q-C-D-S (Quality-Cost-Delivery) of business operations. —Service services) and also play a role in the implementation of various business activities.” In other words, “management information system” (MIS) contains two meanings:

(1) MIS is a system that provides support for business management activities;

(2) MIS is a system that supports or constitutes business activities.

Therefore, Anthony defines management information system as: “The ability to flexibly use information technology to systematically transmit, store, and exchange information inside and outside the enterprise, thereby forming or supporting the enterprise’s operating activities or business. system”.

The role of the Anthony model lies in its definition of management control and its relationship with the government management system The emphasis on monetary data in management control focuses on the evaluation role of budget. It is obvious that budget data, like other information, is used in strategic planning, management control and business control. However, for a large number of policies, For the formulation and more professional management control, the budget is just an evaluation mechanism.

The “Anthony Model” can be said to be the key to modern enterprises The originator of management information system, it is obvious that the prototype of the new concept of modern enterprise management system has been reflected in the “Anthony Model”. The essential difference between this and other previous definitions of management information system is that it has included and considered It is a management system that understands the interrelation and influence of internal and external environmental factors of an enterprise, correctly reflects the true flow direction of logistics, capital flow, and information flow in the supply chain inside and outside the enterprise, and reflects the essence of enterprise management.

With the progress of the times and the development of information technology and management science, the functions of enterprise management information systems have been continuously expanded and improved based on the “Anthony Model”, and today it has developed into the fifth generation based on Computer network technology and e-commerce technology are the modern management information systems, but they remain unchanged. No matter how it is developed, its theoretical core is still based on the theoretical basis of the “Anthony Model”.