A human factor oriented risk mitigation methodology for manufacturing information system implementation

Manufacturing Information Systems (MIS) form the backbone upon which manufacturing organisations assess past performance, manage operations and plan strategic objectives. There are however persistently high rates of problematic and even failed implementations of these types of system. The evidence suggests that although technical risk factors in an MIS implementation have been well addressed, to date, human risk factors in implementations have not been reasonably acknowledged in a manner that allows them to be incorporated into an implementation methodology. This research seeks to address this divide by developing a practitioner oriented methodology to mitigate human risk factors by augmentation of existing methods of MIS implementation.

The model developed by the research was achieved by combination of two distinct research methods. The research propositions were developed by means of three retrospective narratives of MIS implementations conducted by the author in the action research tradition. These case study narratives then informed subsequent research and were used as a benchmark against which theories supporting end user engagement from the domain of organisational behaviour were compared. The second research method employed was to empirically test the tenets of the model by deploying a survey instrument. The proposed model was subsequently validated by qualitative analysis in the form of interviews.

The resulting research validated the proposition that while competent technical design of an MIS was necessary, it was not sufficient to reasonably ensure a successful implementation. The methodology developed addresses the human risk factors identified in the research and incorporates these as part of a validated implementation framework, thus providing a means to address the human risk factors adaptable to each unique instance of an MIS implementation scenario. The augmented methodology provides the Organisation, end user and implementer with the means to negotiate human oriented factors of an implementation from System inception, to post implementation review.