Small And Medium-sized Discrete Manufacturing Enterprises Generic Production Management System

The whole economy globalization goes faster and faster. In such a trend, if the enterprises want to win in the fierce market competition, they must break the information isolation between all the departments and optimize the business process. Therefore the information and the materials can flow smoothly among different departments such as the sales, the schedule, the production, and the raw material purchasing plan etc.. And the cost of operating the whole production can be lowered down. Consequently it will be possible for the enterprises to reduce the price of the products for their customers. At the same time the enterprises need to strengthen the relationship between itself and its customers and to get the accurate real-time customer requirement information through various measurements. Based on this, the enterprises can adjust the production to enable all what the enterprises produce are what the customers need and all what the customers require are what the enterprises can provide. Finally optimized operation of the whole supply chains from the top part (namely the suppliers), to the enterprises itself, and to the bottom part (namely the customers) can be realized. Management Information System is just a kind of tool which can help the enterprises realize these aims.In this paper, the current conditions on operation, production and management in multiple typical medium-sized or small-sized discrete manufacture companies in Sichuan were investigated in detail. Then lots of common characteristics existing in the production activities of these companies were got and a production activity model was built. Based on this model, the present theoretical architecture and standards built on production management system were applied. Multiple methods and technologies such as Object-Oriented, Software Engineering, and Work Flow etc. were adopted integrally. Besides these, existing development experience on production management system of two typical discrete manufacture companies was combined. Finally, a production management system architecture which can serve the function of being commonly used was presented. The architecture has the characteristics of convenient second development, business process re-planning, dynamic function reorganization and system integration with the other systems. Based on this architecture, aiming at the common characteristics of the production activities in these medium-sized or small-sized companies, basic commonly used function modules were designed. Then the database design and the front platform realization of these modules were done according to the principle of serving the function of being commonly used. Especially in the complicated workshop management, the dynamic workshop production schedule based on the thought of linear programming was realized.In this paper, firstly, basic common function modules were developed through researching and abstracting the common characteristics of the production activities in the companies. Then suitable special function modules were secondly developed based on the basic function modules or newly developed aiming at the special characteristics of a company. Finally customized system which can meet special requirements of medium-sized or small-sized discrete companies can be produced fast through integrating and reorganizing the basic and the special modules. This medium-sized and small-sized discrete manufacture company Common Production Management System has the characteristics of easily being enlarged and easy maintenance. In this system, big changes of system realization will not occur because of minor differences in the various companies. Therefore, the work amount in developing the customized systems is reduced, and some duplicate development is avoided, and the development cycle is shortened. It suits to the real conditions of most of the medium-sized or small-sized companies. Less investment is required and faster effects can be noticed.