Quadeisha D Daniels
Vanessa G Dripaul
Anne M Gage
Michael P Glynn
MGS 3040-05
Chapter 9
GROUP A
Introduction
 3M Company develops and manufactures diversified
products for many industries
 3M is a global company with different business
divisions that focus on different industry segments
 3M has 12 sales offices and 185 more offices
internationally
 3M revenues totaled $ 23 billion in 2006,with a net
income of $3.85 billion
 3M employed 75,000 employees in 2006
Question 1: Assume you are a U.S. customer. Access the 3M site and locate
the MSDS for the product having the 3M ID # 62-1838-5430-6. What is the
product? What is the purpose of the MSDS
 The 3M™ Scotch-Weld™ Epoxy Adhesive 1838 Green
B/A, 1 pt Kit, 6 per case
Question 1 continued :What is the purpose of the MSDS?
 MSDS= Material Safety Data Sheet is a form
containing data regarding the properties of a
particular substance
 It is an important component of workplace safety
 It provides workers and emergency personnel with
guidance for handling a hazardous substance and
information on its composition and properties
 MSDS for Epoxy Adhesive
Question 2: Access a 3M site for any country other than the United States. Is
the product in question 1 sold in the country you visited? Is so, is there an
MSDS for that product in that country?
 The country that we visited on the 3M site is Australia
 The product 3M™ Scotch-Weld™ Epoxy Adhesive 1838
Green B/A, 1 pt Kit, 6 per case is sold in Australia
 There is also a MSDS that is offered for the product
Question 3: Access the U.S. 3M site for “Manufacturing & Industry, Abrasives
& Sandpaper.” Visit the sections of the site for “Products,” ‘Documentation,”
and “Where to Buy.” Summarize how 3M could use OLAP analysis. Specify
measures, dimensions, and cubes. What information would 3M obtain from
this analysis? What value does the dynamic aspect of an OLAP analysis add?
Manufacturing & Industry Product
Catalog
Product Catalog
 Industrial Abrasives
Where to Buy
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Where to Buy
Shop 3M
International Contacts
Locate a Converter
 Industrial Adhesives
 Industrial Tapes
 Specialty Products
 Packaging Tapes & Equipment
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Document Center
Brochures & Technical Data
Material Safety Data Sheets
Product EHS & Regulatory
Information
RoHS Compliance
Product Selectors
Question 3 continuation:
 3M value in using OLAP Analysis is the capability to
explore its large volumes of summarized data in just
seconds
 For example creating Sales Analysis to improve sales
force productivity or Customer and Product
Profitability Analysis to transform sales force from a
revenue-centric to a profit-centric department
 OLAP tools take data from relational and nonrelational data sources and transforms it into
explorable structures called cubes
Cubes
• OLAP tools load data into data cubes
• The cube contains all of the data in an aggregated form
• 3M might analyze some financial data by product, by time-period, by city , by
country, by type of industry, and by comparing actual data with a budget
• A single cube can deliver thousands of reports
• For example, 3M could find out total sales by day, month, quarter, year , city,
state , country, category, zip code, and employee
• The Three basic actions that are used create dynamic reports : Drilling down,
Slicing and Dicing, Changing Display
Question 3 continuation…
 An OLAP report has dimensions and measures
 A dimension is a characteristic of a measure
 3M dimensions in this case could be Product families, Customer type,
Customer Locations, Retail Store Locations, International Contacts,
Product Regulations & Documentations by country, state and city
 Measure is the quantitative figure that businesses analyze and derive
reports for across dimensions such as Finance Profit by division,
Marketing Revenue by industry, Operations Volume by plant, etc.
 OLAP product analysis produce info related to questions such as:
 What percentage of the overall revenue is brought in from industrial
abrasives, industrial adhesive and industrial tape?
 What are the best-selling products?
 Which product is most profitable?
 What is the change in product sales mix year over year?
Question 3 continuation …
 OLAP Customer Type analysis produces info related
to question such as:
 Which customer purchases the most products? The Metalwork
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industry, Aircraft Industry or Manufacturing Industry?
Which products are bought with other similar products?
How often and how recently do they buy, at what price point?
What is the volume of customers in specific Foreign Countries?
Which products are purchased more in specific locations as
opposed to other products and locations?
How often a customer purchases a specific product.
When are specific items bought at certain times of the year
(seasonal products, etc)?
Question 3 continuation…
 OLAP Customer Locations Analysis produces info
related to questions such as:
 How does sales growth In Europe or Asia compare to North
America?
 What are the top 10 divisional offices in regard to revenue
generation?
 OLAP Store Location Analysis produces info related to
questions about the concentration and locations of
International Contacts carrying their products
 The web store Shop 3M could provide info about the most
requested product or clicked on
Question 3 continuation
 OLAP Regulation & Documentation analysis
produces info related to subjects such as
 Number of requests for Brochures and Technical Date
for products by industries
 Foreign Countries regulations and law requirements
 3M provides information on the regulatory status of
many 3M products
 One important requirement is the European Union's
Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS) Directive,
which applies to many products in the electrical and
electronic markets.
Question 4: Do you think the abrasive division could effectively use an RFM
analysis? If so, specify how it could perform such analysis. If not, explain why
not?
 The abrasives division could use effectively a RFM
analysis to analyze and rank customers according
their purchasing patterns.
 It considers how recently a customer has ordered, how
frequently a customer has ordered, and how much
money the customer has spent and what type of
product has purchased
 3M can utilize the RFM reporting application by
inputting data from its Customer Relationship
Management Systems that stores this data in their
database
Question 5: Do you think the abrasives division could effectively use a marketbasket analysis? If so what would it do with the information? If not, why not?
 A market-based analysis is a data-mining technique for determining
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sales patterns creating cross-selling opportunities
It is an analysis that shows products that customers tend to buy
together when analyzing sales transactions and counting the number
of times they happen in the same transaction
3M could use it effectively to train sales personnel to use the analysis to
increase cross-selling sales
It is helpful in Managing Inventory or in Forecasting Production
Scheduling.
Could help increase sales by having a “related products” or “customers
who bought this product also bought” section at checkout of webstore.
3M could use this to figure out what similar products are purchased
and then stock more inventory of that product.
Question 6: Suppose that you want to learn which 3M product is the best for
gluing fiberglass to teak(wood). Teak is particularly oily and is difficult to glue.
Access 3M site and attempt to determine which 3M adhesive is best suited for
this task. Describe your experience.
Under the product 3M catalog, I selected Industrial adhesive and
entered in the box Search 3M.com: teak wood
It offered first three products not relevant to solve the problem
I then clicked on the following hyperlink:
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results
included.
I then found in the second page of Google the following product:
3M™ Glass Primer P595
 3M™ Glass Primer P595 is a versatile black primer to improve the
adhesion of 3M polyurethane adhesive/sealants. P595 may be used on
different substrates (concrete, aluminum, wood, glass, plastics). Seals
off the porosity of materials such as wood or concrete.
 I found searching for this solution time-consuming and not quick and
direct at filtering down to the right product
Question 7: Repeat question 6, but use Google instead. Describe your
experience
 I entered in the Google box the question: Which 3M product is best for
bonding to teak wood?
 М Cleaner/Primer link was available on the top of first Google page
This link included a list of products, their description, and
directions for use:
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3M™ Cleaner C596
3M™ Fritted Glass Primer P590
3M™ Plastic Primer P591
3M™ Metal Primer P592
3M™ Teak & Glass Primer P595
3M™ Teak & Glass Primer P597, Clear
 It took a question and the opening of a top link in the Google first page
to find the right product
Question 8: Somewhere in 3M there is a person who knows, off the top of his
or her head, what products to use to glue fiberglass to teak. Is there any way
to find out who that person is ? Does 3M know who that person is? What
type of BI system might 3M set up to help customers find such experts?
 Contact 3M by Phone For personal assistance, at: 1-800-362-
3550.
 Contact 3M by e-mail to ask questions
 Customers Select from the Product Families below
to ensure that questions get routed to the correct area:
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Abrasives
Adhesives and Bonding
Industrial Tapes and Specialty Products
Packaging Tapes and Case Sealing Equipment
Other Manufacturing and Industry Questions
 The 3M head of the division, his or her assistant, customer
support would know
Question 8 Continued
 After calling 3M’s customer service line and being
directed to Steven at the product information line I
was told that the correct product to glue fiberglass to
teak wood is the 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant Fast
Cure 4200.
 We also received the same answer when we e-mailed
them.
 However, both took time to find the right person to
talk to and we had to be re-directed several times to
find Steven who knew the answer to the question.
Question 8 continuation: What type of BI system might 3M set up to help
customers find such experts?
 A BI system that includes Knowledge-Management
applications or Expert Systems
 In March 2010, 3M has chosen SAP Business Suite 7
as its global enterprise applications standard.
 It will support the strategy of meeting customer needs
wherever they are
 If they set up an Expert System to help customers find
the products they need to perform a task they would
see an increase in sales since more people would be
able to find what they need.
Question 9: The 3M site is oriented around divisions and products. If you
know the product you want, you can learn all about that product. But is
poorly organized with regards to problems and needs. 3M is a very successful
company . Why do you think the site is constructed in this matter?
 It does not use a business intelligent system to process the
immense amount of data to create information containing
patterns, relationships, trends, expertise.
 3M philosophy might be that its products are excellent that
they require minimal support.
 They are probably not too familiar with how to construct a
BI system to benefit their customers better.
 Since 3M is so well known and many people have been
using their products longer than their website has been up
they are familiar with the product line and know what they
need to get for certain jobs.