Management information systems: Do they give manufacturing organisations what they want?

Abstract What is a Management Information System (M.I.S.) and does it aid manufacturing organisations? This paper will discuss, with reference to previous work and research currently being undertaken at Napier University, the major influences in the adoption of a M.I.S. and the benefits attained by such an adoption. Over the past decade many companies have attempted to implement a so called M.I.S. with varying success. The current research being carried out at Napier University involves various manufacturing organisations with differing strategies for attaining the “all singing, all dancing” M.I.S. Companies are following two distinct paths; replacing existing manual/computer aided Information Systems with a proprietary M.I.S. or creating and developing existing Information Systems with the ultimate goal of an integrated M.I.S.