Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 30, Number 4
Fall 1999
Intermediate Performance Impacts of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology Systems: An Empirical Investigation
Alan Brandyberry
Department of Finance and Management Information Sciences, School
of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN
55812, abrandyb@d.umn.edu
Arun Rai
Electronic Commerce Institute, J. Mack Robinson College of Business,
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, arunrai@gsu.edu
Gregory P. White
Department of Management, College of Business and Administration,
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901,
ga2607@siu.edu
ABSTRACT. A large-scale random sample is used to empirically
examine the relationships between implementation of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and three organization-level measures
that have historically been attributed to AMT, but not fully
tested along the AMT spectrum: market-oriented flexibility of
the production process, organizational integration of production
processes, and administrative intensity of the organization.
Results indicate that as an organization moves along the technology
scale from stand-alone AMT (e.g., CNC machines) through functionally
oriented AMT (FMS and CAM) toward CIM, not only do its production
processes become more integrated with each other, but those processes
become more integrated with other functional systems of the organization,
and the quality and timeliness of production information increase.
Furthermore, this relationship becomes stronger as companies
increase their level of implementation for the latter two technologies.
Conversely, market-oriented flexibility decreases and administrative
intensity is not observed to change as companies move along the
technology spectrum. Future research should examine how organizational
redesign and implementation strategies that accompany AMT implementation
can concomitantly enhance organizational integration of the production
process and market-oriented flexibility.
Subject Areas: Administrative Efficiency, Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, Flexibility, Integration, Performance
Impacts, Statistics, Technology Adoption, and Technology Implementation. |