Organizational Assessment Of Integrating CAD And Product Data Management Tools In The Furniture Industry

This report begins with an overview of research relating to the organizational and management issues of integrating CAD/PDM systems into furniture companies. Some of the primary areas where CAD/PDM technology affects an organization are in the areas of: 1) job design, 2) organizational structure, 3) power distribution, and 4) user communication patterns. The technology/organizational interaction, however, is bi-directional. Central to the successful integration of new CAD/PDM technology is awareness of social and organizational contingencies which can impact the technologies’ effectiveness. Key contingency issues include: 1) user acceptance, 2) management acceptance, 3) communication to users, and 4) user training. Through this review of technology/organizational interaction, specific examples of issues faced by furniture companies are given. The literature review closes by focusing on additional issues that must be accounted for when implementing a group level technology (i.e., groupware) such as CAD/PDM. The next section outlines the method and results of organizational assessments done at three furniture companies over this last year. These assessments lay the groundwork for planning the integration of CAD/PDM and help identify contingency issues to be tracked. These results are followed by a recommendation for the use of pilot groups as a central element in a companies’ implementation plan. This recommendation comes out of the background research, results of the surveys, and observations of efforts to date at introducing CAD/PDM technology in the furniture industry. Wiebe, E. N., et al. (1997) Organizational assessment of integrating CAD 2 furniture industry. (Tech. Rep. No. 1997-3). Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University, FMMC.