The role of Information technology in conducting production planning and control: a case study

Abstract

This article presents the results of an exploratory research conducted in a lager manufacturing company in order to understand the influences of the Information Technology (IT) in the activities of production planning and control. The research shows that with the development of information systems from isolated systems to integrated systems, activities related to production planning, programming and control were also influenced by new computer applications to integrate the information industry and to search for better operational efficiency. Four main results were obtained: i) the IT improves the efficiency of operations production planning, scheduling and control through corporate information systems, ii) the IT improves the industrial information communication, helping to integrate computer from the collection of data up to the plans of production; iii) the IT facilitates the managerial decision-making to estimates the market and risks; iv) and IT supports innovation in the development of new products and services. Keywords: Industrial Information System; Information Technology; Integrated Manufacturing System; Production Planning and Control; MRP.