Five guidelines for integrating material and data flow in factory 2001

The successful integration of material and data flow involves many different factors. On the one hand, there are what might be called the `hard´ issues. These involve the practicalities of integration. While on the other hand, the `soft´ issues often dominate the progress of a project, and involve the political and other intangible factors which control the decisions that can be made about the `hard´ issues. The author presents five guidelines focusing on these `soft´ issues: (1) secure management commitment, (2) make the integration a team effort, (3) design the process first, (4) model the system, and (5) understand the business