Planning, justifying and installing advanced manufacturing technology: a managerial framework

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an investigation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) implementation practices and performance at 82 discrete‐parts durable goods manufacturing plants in the USA.

A mail survey was used to gather information about: the types of AMT that the plants were using; the planning, justification and installation activities that were used to support the adoption of these technologies; and changes in plant performance that could be attributed to the AMT adoptions. Several propositions that were derived from the AMT literature are tested.

Our results indicate that firms that are desirous of adopting integrated technologies should be prepared to exert considerable effort on: fostering a supportive planning environment; integrating investment justification; engendering human and technology resource consistency; and promoting team‐based project planning and installation. Additionally, our analysis indicates that effort on three of these components contribute to explaining improvements in firm performance.

Although this research unveiled some significant findings, there is a need for testing of the propositions on a larger scale.

The managerial framework that is developed in this paper will be particularly useful to firms that are in the pre‐planning stages of AMT adoption or that are considering adding new AMT to their existing technology portfolio.

While most AMT research studies simply report, discuss and explain their findings, this paper goes further by harnessing the findings into a simple managerial framework for the adoption of AMT that is easy to understand and implement.