A flexible information management system for supporting manufacturing activities

The lack of seamless information interchange hinders the accomplishment of manufacturing activities, which are related to the efficient bi-directional flow of information, coordination of decisions and enhancement of assimilation of practices within and outside the relevant organisation. In particular, a flexible information management system is essential to play an instrumental role of coping with unexpected changes, which normally occur in actual operational situations. To achieve the distinct feature of managing the 'unpredictables', object technology, which is favourable to the creation of inter-related modularised data objects, is incorporated to form a flexible information management system, which is able to support relevant manufacturing activities even under adverse conditions. This paper covers the underlying framework of this information management system, focusing on the role of object technology in enhancing the flexibility of such a system.