AN EXPLORATORY STUDY INTO ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY (AMT) USAGE IN MALAYSIAN SMALL- AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES (SMEs)

For manufacturing companies, to gain competitive advantage in the global market is not always a simple matter of just purchasing and installing new technologies. New technologies require careful planning and persistent efforts to integrate operating and organizational systems to support these operations. It is more important for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have more obstacles in implementing new technologies compared to big companies. Using data collected from 30 SMEs in Malaysia, this paper assesses their situation in terms of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) investment planning and implementation and its relationship to companies' performance and obstacles. This is an exploratory study with the purpose of providing background data to direct future research in building up a contingency study for technology management and implementation for SMEs in Malaysia. The results revealed that in spite of different levels of AMT usage, there were no significant differences between the companies in terms of performance and obstacles. The analysis outcomes implied that technology per se did not make a big difference in its users.