ALIGNING IT APPLICATIONS WITH MANUFACTURING STRATEGY - AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK

Presents an integrated framework that would help manufacturing manager s to select IT applications (manufacturing management systems) that ar e best suited to a given process structure and the intended competitiv e priorities of a firm. The proposed framework is based on the premiss that the process of matching IT applications to competitive prioritie s involves identification of key manufacturing tasks underlying differ ent priorities and the corresponding process structures. The theoretic deductive approach is used to link the three vital elements - competi tive priorities, process structures and IT applications - in the follo wing application areas: product design, demand management, capacity pl anning, inventory management, shopfloor systems, quality management an d distribution.