Material matters: Assessing the effectiveness of
materials management IS
Abstract
Materials management information systems (IS) are designed to enhance decision-making performance by lowering costs,
increasing turnover, and improving service. Because of the large investment that these systems represent, companies have
developed several ways to evaluate their effectiveness. The most direct approach is to assess the effects of the system on
materials management performance outcomes such as inventory costs, turnover, and fill rates. The more common approach is
to assess effectiveness via substitute measures, such as user perceptions and usage statistics. A laboratory experiment was
conducted to examine the relationships between materials management performance, user satisfaction, and system usage. The
three measures were recorded as subjects performed a purchasing task using an materials management IS. Correlations among
the three measures suggest that although satisfaction and usage are closely associated with performance, the relationships
among the measures are not sufficiently strong to warrant their use as interchangeable measures of effectiveness. ~23 1998
Elsevier Science B.V.