ORGANIZATIONAL-DEVELOPMENT AND TIME-BASED FLEXIBILITY - AN EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS OF AMT ADOPTIONS

It has been consistently reported that many firms that have adopted ad vanced manufacturing technology (AMT) are failing to exploit the true flexibility potential of these systems. Since a firm's ability to impr ove flexibility is thought to be reliant on the flexibility of its peo ple, it is often suggested that inadequate emphasis on people-centred implementation activities such as worker development are major contrib utors to many of these failures. The purpose of this study is to deter mine if differences in the level of effort exerted on several organiza tional development activities have any impact on a firm's time-based f lexibility-ability to respond quickly to changes in customer needs. Ou r analysis indicates that firms which expend higher levels of effort o n worker development and functional integration strategies will achiev e higher levels of time-based flexibility.