ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES - DETERMINANTS OF IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS

Observes that in response to the growing global competition, many manu facturing companies are in the process of adopting advanced manufactur ing technologies (AMT) to improve their business operations. Notes tha t, despite the increasing interest in AMT, few empirical studies have been conducted to determine key success implementation factors. Presen ts the results of an empirical study which surveyed manufacturing comp anies in the USA to determine the critical success factors in the impl ementation of AMT. Uses tangible and intangible benefits as indicators of AMT implementation success measures. Classifies the determinants o f AMT implementation success under four broad categories: the triple ' 'C'' factors (communication, commitment and coordination), the houseke eping factors (action plan, effective team, vendor support, cost justi fication, functions integration and effective facilitator), the self-i nterest factors (employee moral, satisfaction, belief in AMT and appro priate reward), and the literacy factors (understanding of firm's busi ness, training clarity of goals/objectives of AMT). Reveals from analy sis of the responses that about 70 per cent of the variances in the su ccess measures were explained by those determinants of AMT identified in the study.