Critical success factors for integration of CAD/CAM systems with ERP systems

Current advances in information technology and, in particular, computer‐aided design/computer‐aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems, have led organisations to undertake significant investments in these systems. Next generation manufacturers require both systems to maintain or gain a competitive advantage, reduce risks and improve productivity and viability. In addition, recent attention to the implementation of CAD/CAM systems highlights their important role in automating complex design and next generation manufacturing processes. In the next millennium more manufacturers are likely to implement CAD/CAM and ERP systems and hence issues in the integration of CAD/CAM with ERP systems must become a major concern. Accordingly, this paper will: explore the problems of integration of CAD/CAM systems with ERP systems; study how the severity of these problems relates to CAD/CAM integration success; propose a set of critical success factors (CSF) for the integration of CAD/CAM with ERP systems; suggest hypotheses to study the relevance of these CSF for successful integration of CAD/CAM with ERP systems. In addition, the paper also demonstrates the importance of successful integration of CAD/CAM systems with other applications for next generation manufacturers. These findings suggest that integration of CAD/CAM systems with ERP systems is complex, involving many factors.