Strategy/planning/design tools. Manufacturing takes place in a global economy. How and where raw materials are transformed is a strategic decision. The decision is complicated in terms of what to make and where to make or buy it, in what is becoming a single global economy. Many of today's manufacturing organisations are designed using vertical and hierarchical structures. The move towards hierarchical structures is and will continue to require major changes in organisations, systems and work practices. We need methodologies and tools to help us to define appropriate manufacturing strategies and to design appropriate organisations and business/work processes. Methods and tools to support business process re-engineering. Modelling tools to support the analyses and development of manufacturing strategies. Design support tools to support planning in an extended enterprise or virtual enterprise environment.
