Socio-technical requirements for production planning and control systems

Abstract

Due to increasing customer requirements and intensifying competition, manufacturing companies are facing growing challenges in the successful order handling. As a result, employees are forced to make increasingly complex decisions in the shortest possible time. At this, the tasks of production planning and control (PPC) are particularly affected. In response to the increasing complexity of tasks, companies rely more than ever on the potential of socio-technical systems, rendered possible by the integration of information systems (IS) in the daily decision-making process. However, due to the increasing complexity of systems used, many users are not capable to raise the potential of information systems acquired, which is why the benefits of IS implementation often fall short of expectations. The following paper thus analyses and structures potential decisive factors causing the lack of problem solving capability in context of using PPC systems. Based on findings from acceptance research, socio-technical influencing factors for the targeted handling of information systems are determined. The developed requirement framework is furthermore compared with current IS implementation strategies to derive future research needs.