Advanced Manufacturing Technology: A Strategic Solution To Production Problem

Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) is revolutionizing the way products are manufactured especially in what are termed world-class manufactured especially in what are termed world-class manufacturers (WCM). AMT is a general expression encompassing Automated production technology, Computer Assisted Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), robotics, Total Quality Control (TQC), advances in production management including materials requirement and manufacturing resources planning systems(MRP), Just-in-Time (JIT) Systems and so on. It has been argued by a number of academics, consultants and industrialists that traditional management accounting systems and performance measures are inappropriate and misleading for firm using AMT. This view is supported by Kaplan (1996) when he said that “traditional management accounting produces?… simple the wrong measures. They move the company in the wrong direction, reward managers for damaging the business and provide no incentive for improvement. The best we can do is to switch them off, just stop doing them!” Keywords: Advanced manufacturing, Total quality control, and Management accounting