Roadmap to the E-Factory

Visioning the e-Factory

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A definition of the degree of process and technology interdependence is

required because one of the fundamental concepts of the e-factory is that

technology accelerates and automates critical elements of business processes.

The technology vision should address at a high level how extensively tech-

nology should be used for both the horizontal and vertical processes; the

number of levels in the control hierarchy and how tightly coupled those levels

should be; and how much automation should employed. Another key question

is whether technology or people will be in a supporting role or a critical role

in each of the process activities.

The role of databases and knowledge bases is an extremely important issue

for virtually every ...