In order to assess the challenges and needs of Austrian companies with respect to current
business and technological developments, a regular well-researched compilation of empirical
data of the Austrian manufacturing industry is necessary. Hence, a panel of 104 decisionmakers
(owners, CEOs, managing directors and plant managers) from leading Austrian
industrial companies was assembled in form of an “industry panel” to investigate current
issues of production work in Austria by means of a survey.
In order to allow for a longitudinal study, it is planned to survey the same group of people
every year; hence the instrument of an annual panel-survey was chosen. To date the panel
consists of 104 leaders from different Austrian or international companies with at least one
factory location in Austria. The panel was assembled first in 2018/2019 and the administered
survey contained 23 questions. The actual questions comprise topics that concern the current
economic situation and future expectations, operational issues with respect to delivery
time, product variability and demand fluctuations, as well as questions relating to innovation,
automation and the application of current technological developments (i.e. assistance
systems, machine learning, etc.) in manufacturing. This paper presents the survey results
and conclusions of the 2019 panel on production work in Austria.
Performance measurement system in supply chain management (SCM) has been receiving increasing
attention by business organizations as a way to evaluate efficiency in supply chain
activities. Assessing the performance of supply chain uncovers the gap between planning
and actual performance as to trace the potential problems thus ascertain necessary areas
for improvement. This research aims to investigate the application of performance measurement
system in SCM as well as exploring its relationship with organization’s performance
among Malaysian manufacturing firms. By utilizing the questionnaire method, respondents
involved were requested to indicate the extent to which they use a number of 24 selected
performance measures that are related to SCM. The results show that the majority of the
observed manufacturing firms utilize specific performance measurement tools in evaluating
the supply chain performance. The current performance measurement techniques, the Balanced
Score Card is adopted by around a quarter of the total responding firms followed
by Supply Chain Operations References Model – SCOR, which attracts total users of only
a fifth of the total respondents. In particular, performance measures under customer service
category recorded the highest number of usage followed by cost-based performance measures
and operations management. The results of this investigation also unveil few major points
that are important to be highlighted. Firstly, the obtained outcomes of this study bring to
light the significant relationships between the utilization of supply chain performance measures
under customer service, operations management and organizational performance. In
addition, this study discovered a significant correlation between the size of the organization
and the extent of use of supply chain performance measures and how these two variables
positively correlated. Lastly, the findings also suggested that the performance measures for
SCM has been playing a crucial role in enhancing the performance of the organizations and
is increasingly operated as the firms grow in size. Based on the brief highlighted points listed
above, it is not an exaggeration to say that this research contributes new information to the
body of knowledge in performance measurement system in SCM and its associations with
organizational performance.
Research focused on integration of machine operators with information flow in manufacturing process according to Industry 4.0 requirements are presented in this paper. A special IT system connecting together machine operators, machine control, process and machine monitoring with companywide IT systems is developed. It is an answer on manufacture of airplane industry requirements. The main aim of the system presented in the article is full automation of information flow between a management level represented by Integrated Management IT System and manufacturing process level. From the management level an information about particular orders are taken, back an on-line information about manufacturing process and manufactured parts are given. System allows automatic identification of tasks for machine operator and particular currently machined part. Operator can verify information about process and tasks. System allows on-line analyzing process data. It is based on information from machining acquired: machine operator, process and machine monitoring systems and measurement devices handled by operator. Process data is integrated with related order as a history of particular manufactured part. System allows for measurement data analysis based on Statistical Process Control algorithm dedicated for short batches. It supports operator in process control. Measurement data are integrated with order data as a part of history of manufactured product. Finally a conception of Cyber-Physical Systems applying in integrated Shop Floor Control and Monitoring systems is presented and discussed.