Development of an information system for production activity control : a case study of an automotive parts manufacturer

Abstract

In the automotive part manufacturing industry, unsuitable production planning and control system causes problems such as high production costs and excessive inventory due to shortages of parts, poor scheduling of operations and poor utilization of resources. This thesis develops an information system for production activity control (PAC) for an automotive part manufacturer to solves the problems. The developing of an information system is devided into three parts. The first part is the studying and analyzing of the existing system by using the IDEFO modelling format. The second part is the development of the operational system for the control of operation and the development of the information system that support it. The systems consists of order preparation, data collection, and production reporting. The information system utilizes a data base approach using the Microsoft FoxPro running on a microcomputer as the tool for the data base management and the application development. The final part of the development is the testing of the system by implementing it on a production line. The testing result indicates that the manpower and the work-in-process are reduced while increasing the production outputs. Therefore, much of the problems of high production costs and excessive inventory is reduced.