Supporting order control in decentral manufacturing structures

Modern manufacturing structures are more and more designed as decentral uni ts with a high responsibility for their products and profits. As decentral units take over responsibility, they have to perform additional functions l ike cost calculation of orders which have formerly been performed by the sa les department. There is a need to support small and medium sized companies (SMEs) as well as profit centers within bigger companies by means of infor mation technology for the purpose of order and cost management. Flexibility to cope with organisational changes, extendability and a modem user interf ace as well as connectivity are the most important requirements on IT syste ms. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.