Organisational and functional views of a small manufacturing enterprise

To achieve and maintain competitive advantage, manufacturing enterprises must be flexible and open to change. This requires regular evaluation of performance and redesign of manufacturing capability. An information-centred approach to factory design is introduced. This includes a reusable enterprise model that facilitates information sharing between designers and managers, through a variety of design, analysis and evaluation tools, called Views. The applicability of this approach to the analysis of small manufacturing enterprises is demonstrated through an industrial case study. In particular, the content and scope of tools to provide both an Organisational View and a Functional View are described.