ADVANCED MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY JUSTIFICATION FOR AN OEM COMPANY WITHIN AXIOMATIC DESIGN FRAMEWORK

Today, in many industrial sectors, technology has made signicant progress. Investing in advanced manufacturing technologies, especially in computer-integrated manufacturing systems, is essential in order to survive in a competitiveenvironment ,improveperformance,respond to demand uctuations, and increase customer satisfaction. With available technologies and systems in computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) and its related technologies, the application of CIM in manufacturing enterprises is a reality and can meet the need of complicated manufacturing environment. Implementation of these systems brings many tangible and intangible benets. However, according to several factors that must be considered in the evaluation process, justication of these systems is complex and dicult. The traditional justication methods, such as net present value (NPV) and return on investment (ROI) for the evaluation of these systems, are not sucient; the substantial benets of advanced manufacturing technologies, such as quality and exibility, go undetected with these methods. Yet, the justication of investment in these systems is one of the many challenges facing managers in the manufacturing industries today. In this paper, the existing approaches to assessment and justication of advanced manufacturing technologies are reviewed. Using axiomatic design theory as a tool for the systematic design, a comprehensive framework to justify the investment is provided. Taking into account the economic and strategic considerations, this framework encompasses the important aspects required for a complex decision-making and analysis. Also, it is shown that using a four- step procedure, intangible benets can be made tangible. Finally, based on the proposed framework, a case study considered and the decision to implement advanced manufacturing technology has been evaluated. The paper lists intangible benets that are important in ERP projects and demonstrates economic and strategic justication of this system. At the strategic level, analytic hierarchy process and The Expert choice 11 were used as tools for project evaluation, followed by the economic analysis required for justication.