| This research was initiated after a literature review revealed that the potential benefits of CAD/CAM were not being reaped by North American manufacturers, largely as a result of insufficient attention being paid to implementation. CAD and CAM operators were identified as influential stakeholders in this process. This thesis thus aimed to elucidate factors affecting their perceptions of CAD and CAM implementation success. Fifty-four CAD designers and CAM machine operators from nineteen Canadian high technology companies were queried as to the significance of nine independent variables. These were: the presence of an effective champion, operating level personnel participation, top management support, end user training, "lateral" support, and usefulness and user-friendliness of the equipment. Two characteristics of end users were also considered. The sample was quite homogeneous with most of the companies indicating that they had considerable experience with CAD/CAM.;Data analysis was pursued separately for designers and machine operators. This revealed that system usefulness and ease of use, training, and top management support contributed most significantly to operators' perceptions of implementation success, although the exact impact of these variables differed in the design and manufacturing environments. Hierarchical regression confirmed the importance of system characteristics to CAD designers. Organizational characteristics, including training, were more important to machine operators. |
