A post-industrial paradigm: To integrate and automate manufacturing

The research team conducted in-depth, on-site interviews with executives from four companies to understand how these organizations cope with automation and integration. The authors contend that management's approach to automation and integration, which was developed in the industrial stage, may not be successful as firms enter a post-industrial environment characterized by global competition, rapid market change, shorter product life cycles, and advances in manufacturing and information technology. In the industrial stage, managers tend to select the 'best' method to automate specific tasks, creating islands of automation. Once these automation efforts are working, they are integrated by linking these islands with automated material handling capabilities and appropriate paperwork flows. This approach often leads to a less than optimal automation effort and results in manufacturing systems which are not capable of responding quickly or effectively to rapidly changing customer needs. Firms operating in the post-industrial environment should focus first on integration and innovation across the value chain. Once this redesign has occurred, firms should automate those activities which add value to customers.