Critical success factors of manufacturing solution adoption: a qualitative case study in metal-stamping industry

Abstract

Manufacturing solution like Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) system is designed for the manufacturing organization to link the fragmentation of the data and information because it integrates and streamlines internal processes by providing a suite of software modules that cover all functional areas of a business. However not all ERP system project implementation is successful especially the high-mix industry because the production process is rather complex and requires to involve a lot of resources and time. These have resulted a number of researches focusing on finding the critical success factors (CSFs) of the manufacturing solution implementation. This qualitative research built a case study in a sheet metal-stamping company that operated under Make-To-Order (MTO) and high-mix environment. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and data were coded and analyzed using Nvivo 10 software. Researchers identified 10 Critical Success Factors for high-mix sheet-metal industry. This research also identified 5 success measures on manufacturing solution adoption. Researchers argue that user paradigm on success relied on the system usability and user satisfaction. In conclusion, manufacturing users still have high believed in manufacturing solution implementation because it could bring real benefits to the company eventhough there are implementation challenges.