Analysis of information needs for efficient worik with production

Research about the kind of information that gives roles in manufacturing companies the ability to make better decisions in their everyday work is a complex area. Much exploration is left to do for the scientists. Much information has been made available in conjunction with the IT era. But it turns out that development is not a par with the knowledge about how companies will utilize it in the best possible way. It can be seen that companies have a gap between what actually happens in terms of investments in information and communication technology and the knowledge about it. The information flow could be used as a competitive advantage if the problem of this gap could be mapped. Where companies can easily target information in the right time, location and form. The purpose of this study is to examine the information requirements at the production level in a case study company, Mastec. The report will empirically review the need through a capacity study with subsequent interviews with both case study companies and another company to achieve greater generalization. The capacity study is the proven method Productivity Potential Assessment (PPA) by Peter Almström and Anders Kinnander. The study’s strength is that it measures productivity at several different levels. To estimate a potential, the parameters are compared with Mastec’s own goals and six reference companies from previous PPA studies. After identifying a productivity potential, questions about information needs related to potential areas are addressed. The combination of a qualitative and quantitative study provides the basis for a fundamental case analysis where a critical situation is studied. Generally, the result shows a complex cluster of information needs that have similarities with both operational character and strategic character. The result of the first question ended in a matrix that was developed using theory of operational and strategic decisions. The information requirement in the matrix was categorized into information about material, 5S activities, quality, stock status, location, real-time information, instructions, external information and overall picture. In further analysis of question one and the following root cause analysis to question two, the critical situation was set to setup time. The information requirement at setup time times can be summarized into a number of points: what is the current plan; which articles are to be run; changes in the plan; measurement personnel are not available; time is spent searching for tools; time is spent looking for fixtures; time is spent searching for documents; low incentives; there are no codes for all stops; the preparation work is inadequate due to difficult planning; silent information; inadequate instructions (to see explanation for these points, see section 4.5)