Strategic Role of Information and Information Technology in Shop Floor Control in Footwear Industry Sector

Introduction

We are in the XXI century and living in a knowledge society, where business is changing rapidly and where success and survival depend on the organization's ability to adjust to dynamic business environment. In this context, some questions arise: How can we develop the best strategy for business? How information systems can contribute to the strategy? What is the contribution of information technology to the existing information systems in business?

The purpose of this chapter is to seek to understand the importance and strategic role of information and information technology in the shop floor control in the footwear industry sector. After the main themes of literature related to the subject as: systems and enterprise production process, shop floor control, the strategic role of information and the contribution of information technology for information systems, we defined the following research questions, which will be key to the development of this research:

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  How to identify the need for information, solutions and actions needed that will contribute to the improvement and efficiency of the production process?

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  How to identify the need and contribution of resources and solutions currently available through information technology.

The research will be conducted, with company of an industrial Brazilian footwear, aims to raise and analyze the degree of maturity of these companies in tracking and pointing the various stages of the production process and identify how these industries identify needs information, actions and solutions that will contribute to improvement and efficiency of the production process. The importance of effective control of production processes and the use of information technology industries in Brazil have been meeting the expectation of growth that emerging countries like Brazil, has shown in recent years. In the case study, we will analyze a solution called GradeSFC tracking and pointing of the production process.