| Scope and method of study. Most of the information currently available, and predominantly used to theorize on the secrets of success or failure of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) implementation are primarily based on individual project experiences. This study sought to identify correlation between the levels of commonly cited success factors in individual AMT project implementation that differentiated successful AMT implementation efforts from unsuccessful ones. A questionnaire was developed, and used to survey "knowledge workers", who were involved with their organizations' AMT implementation efforts. In order to classify AMT projects as either successes or failures, provision was made in the survey instrument to obtain information from each project regarding the initial expected outcome of the project, and its performance relative to the stated expected outcomes. Scoring schemes were developed, evaluated, and the best methodology was used to obtain the relative performance scores for each project. The scores obtained underwent cluster analysis to define projects as either successes or failures. These groupings were used for testing nineteen hypotheses to find out which of the factors commonly listed as success factors in individual project implementation experiences were statistically significant for distinguishing between the successful and the unsuccessful groups of AMT implementation.; Findings and conclusions. A two tailed t-test for independent groups, indicated that seven out of the nineteen factors addressed in the study were statistically significant in differentiating successful and unsuccessful AMT implementation efforts across the twenty-eight projects represented in the survey. The findings concluded that although all of the factors addressed in the hypotheses tended to contribute to success in individual projects, the degree to which they varied between successful and unsuccessful projects was significant for only seven factors. The degree to which these seven factors are present would be indicative of more successful AMT implementations across projects and organizational boundaries. The seven significant factors were: alignment of the core organizational systems with the corporate strategy, strategy formulation process, educational program for employees, top-down planning and bottom-up implementation, pace of implementation, adequacy of technology implemented to its application, and the alignment of AMT strategy with corporate culture. |
