COMPUTER SUPPORT FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTS

The view of manufacturing has changed in recent years. This is evident from how the focus of management's attention is shifting more and more towards the basics of operating the business. The challenge to manufacturers in the West today is how to introduce leaner practices in their operations. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how computer technology and information systems can be applied to support the transition to leaner practices in a complex operation. The problem with the large information systems developed to manage the complex operations of many Western companies is that they were designed to help maintain performance and not to support finding opportunities for new improved practices. Results from the ESPRIT II project, CIM for Multi-supplier Operations (CMSO), show that an existing data infrastructure can be effectively utilized to develop inexpensive, customized tools to support a process of continuous improvements. In this project a set of tools for planning the material flow from supplier to the assembly line was developed for the Saab-Valmet automobile assembly plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Hypertext tools were used to quickly develop decision support applications that supported problem solving and finding improvement potentials.