Strategic issues and policy of CIM adoption in the transition period of the Czech Republic

Discusses industrial automation in pre‐ and post‐1989 Czechoslovakia. Managerial effort in the centrally planned economy was concentrated primarily on achieving and exceeding volume targets. Quality, flexibility, and consumer needs were secondary considerations. The incentives for automation within company top management were relatively low. Strategic decision making was done by governmental bodies and the criteria for implementation of automation were not economic, but political. Analyses the penetration of numerically controlled machines, robots, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and computer aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and shows that it did not follow the logistic curve because of a lack of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) technologies in former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) countries. Discusses the nature of managers′resistance and how to overcome it.