Production Management System: Integration of SIS, CIM, and JIT

Abstract

Strategic Information System (SIS) utilizes the word “strategic” because the very existence of such an information system has strategic significance. This chapter describes how production managers at Toyota have utilized SIS, Computer-integrated Manufacturing (CIM), and just-in-time in their production management organization. A SIS or CIM must include more than a computer-based communications network. One key element in the Toyota Group’s SIS is the order entry system by which sales companies pass along orders and other sales data to the parent company. Toyota has made a number of developments in building an information system for communicating with suppliers. Toyota established a value-added network to provide an on-line link with major Toyota Group parts manufacturers such as Nippondenso, Toyoda Boshoku, and Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. At Toyota assembly plants, the system takes the form of a multilayered, decentralized factory control system. This long term simply means that each factory includes several autonomous subsystems that mutually adjust and control factory operations.