Manufacturing Process Innovation Deployment Readiness from an Extended People, Process, and Technology Framework Viewpoint

Abstract

Advances in digital technologies, amongst others, present process innovation opportunities in manufacturing which if appropriately exploited will increase performance and productivity. Central to successful implementation of process innovation initiatives is adequate preparation during pre-implementation phase and ensuring that the business is ready prior to the deployment of their process innovation initiatives. Akin to digital transformation, key elements of process innovation deployment include people, process, and technology. An understanding of these key elements of process innovation deployment readiness will help towards achieving successful implementation outcome. This paper explores manufacturing process innovation deployment readiness from an extended people, process, and technology framework perspective. The extension adds to the traditional PPT framework the context of the deployment. Attributes of manufacturing process innovation deployment readiness were obtained from the literature and the derived attributes form the basis for discussing the extended PPT view of deployment readiness. It is concluded that failure to either consider or grossly underestimate the role of people, processes, technology, and the context of the deployment will undermine implementations of process innovation in manufacturing.