Scenario Sollace Manufacturing Please read this scenario prior to answering the question
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. Refer to the Sollace Manufacturing
Scenario You are serving as the Lead Enterprise Architect of the newly-formed Common
ERP Deployment architecture project team. As the Common ERP Deployment architecture
project team assembles for its initial meeting, many of the participants have voiced
concerns about the sweeping scope of the initiative. Others are confident that they know a
solution that will work. During the meeting, a number of alternative recommendations for
how to proceed are put forward by members of the team. You have been asked to select
the most appropriate recommendation to ensure that the team evaluates different

approaches to the problem and clarifies the requirements for the architecture. Based on
TOGAF 9, which of the following is the best answer?

A.
The team should conduct a pilot project that will enable vendors on the short list to
demonstrate potential solutions that will address the concerns of the stakeholders. Based
on the findings of that pilot project, a complete set of requirements can be developed that
will drive the evolution of the architecture.

B.
The team should create Baseline and Target Architectures for each of the manufacturing
plants. A gap analysis between the architectures will then validate the approach, and
determine the Transition Architecture needed to achieve the target state.

C.
The team should hold a series of interviews at each of the manufacturing plants using the
business scenario technique. This will then enable them to identify and document the
characteristics of the architecture from the business requirements.

D.
The team should exercise due diligence and carefully research vendor literature and
conduct a series of briefings with vendors that are on the current approved supplier list.
Based on the findings from the research, the team should define a preliminary target
Architecture Vision. The team should then use that model to build consensus among the
key stakeholders.