Utilisation of MIS in manufacturing industries

Abstract

An organisation succeeds by bringing together and managing certain resources in a productive way. The traditional list of resources comprises labour (manpower), money, material, managers, machines and facilities. Only over the past two decades has information come to be recognised as another resource, one that is crucial to the management of others and one, which under certain circumstances, may be substituted for them cost-effectively.Information shares many properties with other resources: it has value and lends itself to the process of management. Information is a valuable resource and hence must be managed in a well-designed system so that managers are able to obtain relevant information timeously for their decision-making processes.One of the major problems of organisations that make them fail may be insufficient utilisation of the major resource of the organisation, viz. information. Managers have to be aware of utilising management information systems effectively to be competitive in the business world. Many managers in the manufacturing industries in South Africa may be unaware of the capabilities and use of an effective MIS.Most manufacturing industries are possibly already using products of Information Technology. However, their awareness level of applying information technology to designing effective management information systems to overcome their specific problems needs to be investigated and determined.To be effective in today's dynamic and competitive business environment, a manager, and indeed, an organisation, must think in the system mode. Technological innovation has simplified the collection of data into sophisticated information systems. With appropriate management information systems in place, managers can focus their attention on the creative elements of management such as developing strategy, searching for new opportunities and competitive advantages, and optimising the use of the organisation's resources.The primary objective of this research was to establish the impact of management information systems (MIS) and information technology on the success of manufacturing industries. The other aim of the study was to investigate the extent of applying information technology in these industries. The study focused on medium and large-scale chemical manufacturing companies in the Cape Metropole area that have operated at least for the past five years. The empirical data were collected through questionnaires.Frequency and multiple regression analysis were applied to analyse the data. The results of the analysis indicate that most of the managers of the companies appear to be aware of the capabilities and use of MIS for their business success. However, there are still some managers who are unaware of MIS. It was also found that utilisation of MIS in manufacturing companies and applying information technology have a positive impact on their success.