Adoption of AMT by South African manufacturers
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a survey of South African manufacturers that examined their planning and implementation activities relating to advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investments. Data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire survey to which 84 companies responded to questions regarding their largest AMT investment in the last three years. The analysis is structured on a process model of adoption of AMT comprising three stages: motivation and idea generation for AMT; AMT proposal evaluation; and AMT implementation. The paper presents results relating to formulation of strategies; nature and size of AMT investments; sources of AMT investment ideas and forces motivating AMT investments; AMT proposal development; training in AMT and production management; AMT proposal evaluation; planning and implementation time periods and benefits and risks/difficulties. These dimensions are evaluated across dimensions of company size, types of AMT, and type of production system.
Keywords
Citation
Sohal, A.S., Schroder, R., Uliana, E.O. and Maguire, W. (2001), "Adoption of AMT by South African manufacturers", Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 15-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/09576060110361519
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited