MANUFACTURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Manufacturing information system is a system the support the manufacturing functions of purchasing, receiving, quality control, inventory management, material requirements planning, capacity planning, production scheduling, and plant design. It performance applies to both Manufacturing and service environments. Hence, the term manufacturing should be considered in terms of delivering both goods and services.
Generally, the primary decisions made in the manufacturing include product design, production, facility design, and quality control.
• Product design is the starting point of the manufacturing process. It is the step in which the design and technical specifications for the product are finalized. Increasingly, product design and engineering are becoming more computerized through approaches such as computer aided design (CAD), computer aided engineering (CAE), and robotics. After a product is designed, the facilities to manufacture must be planned. This design may be as simple as
changing a few manufacturing stations on the production floor or as complex as designing an entirely new plant. The computer can also model plant layout. Monte Carlo simulation on computers has been used since 1950s to address certain facility layout problems –sometimes with substantial success.
• Production is the process of making new products from raw materials. Generally, he production methods: job shop and process. Most production process as an integrated system. Some firms are trying to integrate CAD, CAM and other manufacturing activities, a concept known as computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). All manufacturing processes concerned with information processing, storage, collection, and distribution are related in a way that
optimizes performance of the entire enterprise. Integration allows organizations to efficiently manage (and control) manufacturing and engineering information by eliminating barriers across departments and functions-possibly even across organizations.
• Agile manufacturing refers to manufacturing environments that are dynamic and flexible enough to instantaneously produce customized goods and services in varying quantities and to effortlessly switch the manufacturing process from one product to another. Agile manufacturing has four main characteristics:
1:-The ability to thrive on constant change.
2:-recognition by the organization that people are its main asset
3:-Incorporation of the virtual company idea through the use of telecommunications.
4:-A focus on creating products and services with real added value.
Sources of Manufacturing Information
• Product data. By using terminals around the production floor, data on production processes can be quickly gathered and processed. These data are used for billing and in almost every aspect of production control.
• Inventory data. it includes inventories of raw materials goods –in-process, and finished goods. Accurate raw material data are especially imp in a manufacturing situation because running out of certain items at critical times can shut down production lines, leaving workers idle.
• Vendor data. It shows sources and prices for raw materials. Often, it are maintained by the purchasing department, although, sometimes the manufacturing area will personally buy certain items. In any case, manufacturing personnel must be constantly aware of the origination of their raw materials, what new types of products are offered by vendors, and current prices.
• Personnel data. It shows various statistics on current manufacturing personnel.
• Union data. Many types of labour today are unionized production shops usually have strict regulations regarding such items as pay scales, hiring and firing, promotion, and working conditions.
• Engineering specifications. It is the data indicate whether something can be built and how. It contain such facts a size of screws; whether a certain drill bit is suitable for wood.
• Internal marketing data. It ends where manufacturing begins, so marketing output is manufacturing input. Marketing specifies the number of units of goods that must be product in each time period in order to meet consumer demand.
Advantages of Manufacturing Information System
Manufacturing goods & services is the main function of a business. The information generated from the shop- floor drives the rest of the organization. Hence, the firms that have wall –integrated manufacturing information systems are bound to reap significant benefits.
In late 1990, an India-based multinational firm started replacing its PC- based manufacturing system with a new manufacturing information system called integrated information system architecture. The main objective was reducing manufacturing cost and cutting down cycle times.
The new system, which used data base, networks, GUIs, and of the shelf software, allows 1800 employees distributed throughout the firm to easily access enterprise-wide manufacturing data by integrating a num of code business system. Embedded with decision support capabilities, the system allows managers to be decision making instead of data collectors.
