Assessment of usage of planning & scheduling procedures & ICT by UK manufacturing SME's

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the practices of scheduling and data management in small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). This work intends to identify and assess the stage of usage of tools and/or software used in companies across the UK, and their techniques. To make this assessment and compare the results within these practices, a combination of a webquestionnaire and interviews were carried out, where participants are asked for their insight and evaluation on issues that were found in literature. To better analyse the impact of the tools and techniques, results were compared within these practices, the companies that show better results or lack of success are analysed by a series of performance indicators that may identify the result of such tools and techniques. To perform this survey, a literature review was carried out to discover previous research that has been conducted on the topic and identify the gaps between theory and practices. Research presents positive and negative aspects of the more common and traditional scheduling tools, a classification for manufacturing scheduling tools, and the usage of ERP systems in SMEs. Data was collected from the companies and is than analysed and discussed to identify trends and produce conclusions on the practices of UK manufacturing companies.