Towards total integrated manufacturing

Abstract Manufacturing entered the decade of the 1980s in a mood of considerable technological optimism. A growing range of powerful advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) was emerging to meet the challenges of the new strategic environment, and beyond this lay the possibilities of enhanced competitiveness through the computer-integrated factory and the electronically networked supply chain. Yet a decade or so later there appears to be far more caution about AMT. Although many firms found improved competitive performance, the road is littered with less fortunate examples of failure and disappointed expectations. This picture is likely to change again; as industry moves out of recession, we can expect to see an acceleration in the rate of adoption of AMT. The question for management thus becomes one of avoiding the pitfalls which led to so much disappointment in the late 1980s. This paper will try to distil some of the main lessons which might be usefully learned and applied from that experience; in particular it will argue the need for parallel organisational change and development to enable effective implementation of AMT.