IT BASED PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT IN MEDIUM SIZED INDUSTRIAL BUSINESSES – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

Due to globalization small and medium sized industrial enterprises (SMEs) have to face international competition. Therefore, an increasing number of production shop floors were sourced out or built up offshore in so-called low-wage countries. In order to remain economically successful even with manufacturing in high-wage countries businesses have to have efficient production processes resulting from an effective production management. For that reason the (shop-floor) management needs suitable key performance indicators based on reliable information. Reliable means in a sufficient information quality concerning timeliness, granularity, accuracy, and completeness. The provision of such high quality right time data, which is a task of information management, therefore is a critical success factor.

Searching for frameworks containing good practices for effective IT infrastructures in production environments is not prosperous because of a lack of research in that field. To contribute to this field of research, an exploratory study based on an online questionnaire was carried out. The questionnaire focuses on three main objects: first the information demand derived from the KPIs used in production, second the information supply with regard to the IT infrastructure, and third the degree of satisfaction with the actual information supply. Based on the findings of the questionnaire the contribution of this article consists of the derivation of good practices and recommended actions for industrial SMEs.

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