The QFD for planning CIM investments

The introduction of sophisticated instruments that tend to bring about an integration of the entire productive system of a company (e.g. MRP, FMS, CAD/CAM) often poses notable implementation difficulties and sometimes such considerable alterations to the existing organization that it could cause the failure of the enterprise. On the basis of these considerations, the present work shows that the applications of specific methodology devised to rationalize the development stage of new products can present a valid support for the planning of the integration procedure-looking at the question from the CIM point of view-in the production systems. In fact, the authors applied, in a leading pharmaceutical company, the QFD technique in order to identify the priorities to be carried out among the procedures defined in the scope of a CIM project with the purpose of guiding the management in the drawing-up of the budget details for the forecasted investments, and the operating groups for an efficient implementation of the above-mentioned procedures.