Communications: a key issue in advanced manufacturing systems

The increasing global competition and the rapid advancement in information technology have led to the adoption of advanced manufacturing systems (AMS) by several manufacturing organizations. The rise in popularity of AMS is attributed to its numerous benefits that can improve the competitive position of manufacturing firms. Although the benefits of AMS are numerous and have been found to have direct links with the firm´s characteristics, only a handful of companies have been able to realize the full benefits of AMS. The literature is replete with the argument that some critical success factors are required for a successful AMS implementation. One of these factors is effective communications prior to, during and after AMS implementation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which communications affects the benefits of AMS. 400 validated questionnaires were mailed out to US manufacturing firms and 92 (23 percent) usable responses were received and used in this study. The findings are interesting and have some practical implications. The results show that communications have a positive significant association with all the AMS benefits considered in this study