Abstract
This paper presents work on the design and development of a methodology to evaluate an installed Computer-Aided Production Management (CAPM) system. Such systems, despite their costs of purchase and implementation, find wide application in industry but there is still considerable debate as to their contribution to the overall performance of a company. A variety of possible methodologies has been explored. However, it was found that most of the existing techniques tended to focus on a comparison of systems with respect to best practice or to require data that a company was unlikely to have. A flexible methodology, designed to establish the effectiveness and efficiency of an installed CAPM system has, therefore, been developed. The method employs a Delphi approach and is designed to establish the contribution of the CAPM system to the company's overall competitive position. In its development, a generic CAPM system model was devised which was intended to facilitate the investigation without reference to any particular technology, management mode, or manufacturing control system. The method consists of four stages: stage I establishes the context; stage II determines the underlying architecture of the system; stage III quantifies the contribution to the company's competitive position; and stage IV identifies any problems in the particular CAPM system under scrutiny. The design is such that it enables a systematic investigation of the CAPM system to be completed, the system's contribution to the company to be identified and any inadequacies to be determined. The method was developed in collaboration with a number of companies all of which were experiencing various difficulties with their (different) CAPM systems. The tests revealed that the proposed method provides useful information on the performance of an installed CAPM system. The paper presents the overall structure of the methodology and gives details of the investigation and development in each of the collaborating companies. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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