The rapid pace of technological innovation and the effects of the
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) revolution have resulted
in dramatic changes on a global scale, from the empowerment of the
individual to the spawning of global markets. From the business
perspective, the widespread deployment of Information Technology (IT)
has resulted in many organisational changes and the development and use
of new management and business processes. An important challenge for
today's manufacturing organisations is to be able to anticipate the
impact of investments in new (frequently IT-based) manufacturing
technologies and programmes. Ideally, management needs to be able to
identify and articulate the many ways in which investment decisions
influence their organisation - in terms of performance across a range of
measures. Furthermore, in today's manufacturing environment, it is
increasingly necessary that a close relationship exists between
manufacturing decision making and corporate business strategy, so that
manufacturing decisions complement and are fully aligned with the
organisation's strategic objectives.
Strategic Decision Making in Modern Manufacturing introduces and
explains the AMBIT (Advanced Manufacturing Business
ImplemenTation) approach, which has been developed to bridge the
gap between strategic management considerations and the operational
effects of technology investment decisions on the manufacturing
organisation, so that the likely impact of new manufacturing technology
and/or programme implementations can be evaluated, anticipated and
accurately predicted. The AMBIT approach focuses specifically on the
non-financial aspects of such investment decisions and offers an
approach that allows a manager, or more frequently a management team, to
understand the impacts of a new technology or a new programme on the
manufacturing organisation in terms of manufacturing performance.
The prediction of future trends and patterns is a very imprecise and
ambiguous activity at the best of times. Yet despite such ambiguity,
managers need to be forward looking. They need appropriate tools and
approaches to help them anticipate the future. Thus, whilst the pages of
organisational history may be filled with anecdotes about organisations
that failed to "predict" the future, it is the challenge of today's
organisations to evade such a fate. The AMBIT approach delineated in
this book has been specifically developed to anticipate the future by
analysing the impact of managerial decisions.
