Technology in Operations

1
Technology in Operations

• By Terri Cochrane

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Benefits of Using Technology

• Increased capacity of production
• Higher quality products
• Lower operating costs
• Shorter cycle times
• Mass customization of products
• Improved organizational effectiveness
• Greater agility and efficiency
• Development of seamless processes

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Electronic Data Interchange

• Transmission of business transactions from one
  company's computer to another company's computer.
  Transmission is achieved through an electronic
  communication network that uses translation
  software to convert transactions from a company's
  internal format to a standard EDI format.
• Examples
• online banking
• online retailing
• electronic funds transfer (payroll checks)

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Production Process Technology

• FMS (Flexible Manufacturing Systems)
• is a manufacturing system in which there is some
  amount of flexibility that allows the system to
  react in the case of changes, whether predicted
  or unpredicted.

• Incorporates machine flexibility- the ability to
  produce different product types and change the
  order on parts
• Incorporates routing flexibility the ability to
  use multiple machines to perform the same
  function on a part and to make large scale
  changes in volume and capacity

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Production Process Technology

• CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing)

• MRP (Materials Requirements Planning)

• Commonly refers to the use of numerical control
  (NC) computer software applications to create
  detailed instructions (G-code) that drive
  computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools
  for manufacturing parts.
• can maximize utilization of a full range of
  production equipment
• can aid in creating, verifying, and optimizing NC
  programs for optimum machining productivity
•  product lifecycle management

• A materials requirement planning (MRP)
  information system is a sales forecast-based
  system used to schedule raw material deliveries
  and quantities, given assumptions of machine and
  labor units required to fulfill a sales forecast.
  
• includes inventory control, bill of
  material processing and elementary scheduling
• helps organizations to maintain low inventory
  levels
• used to plan manufacturing, purchasing and
  delivering activities

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Explain how ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
software integrates different aspects of
operations

• Attempts to integrate all departments and
  functions across a company onto a single computer
  system that can serve all those different
  departments particular needs.
• ERP takes a customer order and provides a
  software road map for automating the different
  steps along the path to fulfilling it. 
• People in different departments all see the same
  information and can update it. When one
  department finishes with the order it is
  automatically routed via the ERP system to the
  next department. 
• To find out where the order is at any point, you
  need only log in to the ERP system and track it 

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Technology to Track Inventory

• Because of the value and investment associated
  with inventory, companies seek to track the
  movement of their inventory as closely as
  possible.
• The bar code or Universal Product Code (UPC)
  serves as the most common inventory tracking
  method. Designed for use in the retail
  environment, the standard bar code allows
  retailers to track inventory through
  point-of-sale (POS) equipment.
• Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology
  can scan more than one unit at a time, it does
  not require line-of-site between tags and readers
  and most fixed RFID readers do not require human
  intervention to work.
• Tag System- At the point-of-sale, the retailer
  removes the tag. The collected tags get
  crosschecked against the physical inventory to
  determine sales quantities.

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Technology that Develops and Stores Technical and
Engineering Data

• CAD (Computer Aided Design)

• Technical Data Management Systems (TDMS)

• Architects, drafters, engineers, and artists use
  CAD software to create plans and construction
  drawings.
• Switch between two-dimensional (2D) and
  three-dimensional (3D) views.
• Zoom in and out for close-up and distant views.
• Rotate images to view them from different
  perspectives.
• Change the scale of images
• Manipulate the shape of images

• Management of technical and engineering
  drawings and technical archives.
• record management involving purely technical or
  techno-commercial or techno-legal information or
  data
• Steel Plants (ISP), Automobile factories,
  Aero-space facilities, Infrastructure companies,
  City Corporations, Research Organizations