Adopting and implementing advanced manufacturing technology: new data on key factors from the aeronautical industry

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to take a greater in-depth look at which factors might be considered to be key to the performance of investments made in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), given their supposed positive effects, and on the influence that the time these factors are taken into account during the adoption and implementation process can have on that relationship. It provides a specially devised empirical analysis in the aeronautical sector in the south of Spain. A survey of the 20 plants in the population was conducted via a postal questionnaire between July 1999 and April 2001, with a structured interview being held at a later date. The testing of hypotheses was performed by applying the t-test to independent samples. The results show that the only factor that has a clear and positive effect on performance is the training of personnel. It can also be seen that a lack of strategic planning contributes to dampening the effects of investments. These results may be of some help to management staff and public administrators in charge of promoting the process of technological innovation, by indicating actions that need to be taken in order to successfully adopt and implement AMT.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to all those people and companies who cooperated in the fieldwork, without whose collaboration and interest our project would not have been possible. We also wish to thank Professor José Luis Pérez Díez de los Ríos for his invaluable assistance with the statistical analysis. The authors gratefully acknowledge the useful comments and suggestions from the editor and three anonymous reviewers. This research has been partially funded by the CICYT (Spanish Inter Ministerial Commission of Science and Technology) through project number PB1869 and by the Andalusian Regional Government.

Notes

¹EADS, which came to being on 10 July 2000, is the largest aerospace company in Europe and the second largest worldwide and emerged from the link-up of the German DASA, the French Aeroespatiale Matra and the Spanish CASA.

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