Equipment dedication and automation: Some empirical findings

Automation has long been viewed as a vehicle by which one could capture improvements in productive efficiency. In many situations, however, this efficiency was attainable only through increasing focus and dedication of the productive process to the support of a relatively narrow set of products. During the last decade, attention has turned to two other approaches. One was the employment of non-automated but yet dedicated equipment to select product groups. The other was the employment of highly sophisticated, automated equipment in an essentially non-dedicated environment. The former we refer to as reflective of a Japanese approach, the latter a FMS. Our study focuses on the degree to which these approaches are reflected in the US manufacturing industry and their relationship to economic performance measures. The findings suggest that movement from a traditional high dedication, high automation position toward either a Japanese or a FMS posture should be carefully evaluated since US firms have tended to compete more effectively when employing the more traditional approach.