Manufacturing investments in the Czech Republic:

The impact of AMT practices on firm performance in manufacturing SMEs

“…Moreover, SME managers usually make their investment decisions based on the perspective of short-term benefits like cost and productivity goals [21,22] rather than systematic investment analysis of the alignment between AMTs and firm manufacturing characteristics. These factors altogether contribute to failures and play a discouraging role for the implementation of AMTs in SMEs.…”

Enhancing competitiveness through effective adoption and utilisation of advanced manufacturing technology: implications and lessons learned

“…Justification stage Financial investment evaluation Demmel and Askin, 1996;Lefley, 1996;Lefley et al, 2004;Lei, Hitt and Goldhar, 1996;Primrose, 1991;Raafat, 2002;Small and Chen, 1995;Teng and Seetharaman, 2004;Ehie, 1996 Strategic investment evaluation Demmel andAskin, 1996;Lefley, 1996;Lefley et al, 2004;Primrose, 1991;Rafaat, 2002;Small and Chen, 1995;Udo and Ehie, 1996 Development of measurements for assessing AMT performance prior to installation Small and Chen, 1995;Primrose and Verter, 1996 Installation stage Choosing knowledgeable project leader(s) Beatty, 1990;Boer, Hill and Krabbendam, 1990;Hershfield, 1992;Meredith, 1988;Rubenowitz, Olsson and Steen, 1990;Udo and Ehie, 1996 Communicating the likely impact of AMT to all plant workers Attaran, 1992;Ettlie, 1990;Gowan and Mathieu, 1996;Gyan-Baffour, 1994;Tchijov, 1989;Upton, 1995;Udo, Ehie and Olorunniwo, 1995 Emphasizing teamwork or group activities Beatty, 1990;Beatty and Gordon, 1990;Bessant and Haywood, 1988;Boer, Hill and Krabbendam, 1990;Gowan and Mathieu, 1996;Nemetz and Fry, 1988;Sun and Gertsen, 1995;…”

“…Hayes and Jaikumar, 1991;Small and Yasin, 1997;Klein, Conn and Sorra, 2001). In addition, there is some indication that faulty or inadequate investment justification practices can result in firms not recognising or considering some benefits which the AMT may indeed be capable of bestowing (Primrose, 1991;Small and Chen, 1995;Burcher and Lee, 2000;Lefley et al, 2004;Teng and Seetharamam, 2004;Dangayach and Deshmukh, 2005;Salaheldin, 2007). As an example, Primrose (1991) indicated that if the strategic benefits of an AMT are not quantified in the appraisal, they will appear as unexplained variances not attributable to the project in the accounting report.…”

Advanced Manufacturing Technology Projects Justification

“…Moreover, they realized that financial directors do have many difficulties when assessing various benefits of AMT projects, and finally, that investment into AMT could be easily influenced by business culture where managers are under pressure to produce shortterm results. The first study in this field in the Czech Republic (Lefley et al, 2004) revealed that despite of many differences ascertained especially in the extent as well as the level of evaluated and implemented technology, where Czech manufacturing companies lagged behind their western competitors, there were many problems that were common for managers from all the three surveyed countries. These results fostered our interest to conduct the second survey in the Czech Republic in 2005 in order to identify the relevant changes in the results that were expected due to the quickly transforming Czech economy and its openness.…”

“…Naturally, this criterion prioritizes projects capable of early repayment of initial expenses while as a rule capital intensive AMT projects tend to be slow in generating positive net cash flows. Indeed, many argue that the utilization of the payback method virtually guarantees the rejection of projects such as AMT (Lefley et al, 2004). On the other hand it has to be stressed, that the problem is not caused by the criterion itself, but it arises when a short payback period is requested by the company management.…”