Planning is a distributed decision-making process. It involves top management for leadership, direction, judgment, major decision making and removing roadblocks, middle management for implementation change, carrying out decisions and managing results and procedures for doing the work and providing information, insight and knowledge.

Planning work best when it deals with current issues and foreseeable actions and benchmarked results. Detailed elements of planning involve some aspects that are more easily planned and the results more easily benchmarked and measured, than for other. These elements range over planning changes covering both visible and invisible aspects of planning. Visible elements, such as planning facility changes and modification to accommodate FMS, for example, tend to be easier to plan out than how the FMS will interface with existing computer system and current operations.

Once a major automation project is started, it can easily take a few years to complete. Allowing for anticipated changes in priorities and people during that time is only taking a realistic view of a changing world and another element of the planning process. Consequently, even change itself must be planned for and dealt with. Planning for change can be accomplished by open discourse, astute contingency planning, and designating human resource backups and by management becoming more involved in the planning process. Management involvement provides the necessary "glue" through communication support, direction and leadership to keep the project tied together, moving and on schedule.

Generally, management's responsibilities, along with visible signs of the commitment and planning efforts, should be :

Management must initially concentrate on the "where are we going" issues and should be accessible and approachable to the project team. Management must be approachable to provide guidance and direction while helping to seek answers to questions that they themselves cannot answer. Twice a month summary meetings should be held. Management must keep its finger on the pulse of the emerging automation improvements, as also on the cost, quality, and delivery of products. Senior management visibility and accessibility by middle, first-line management and hourly employees are vital to overall attitude changes and project success before, during, and after automation improvements.

Plant charts and mission statements are important but are quickly perceived as mere up service unless backed by concrete, tangible evidence of FMS improvement efforts. People must see short-term deliverables take shape towards completion of the FMS.

Commitment means communication and reassurance, not only to members of the project team, but to all employees, threatened by automation in the first place. Management should get out of their offices, walk around, and talk to people. This shows sincerity, individual concern, and adds the personal touch.

Management must surround themselves with strong, competent people. Going one step farther, this means adding balance to the project team in terms of skills, discipline, knowledge, and experiences.

Cronyism, political appointments, and all "yes" people have no place in an FMS or any automation project . In some cases it may pay to balance the project team with some younger, less experienced engineers and technicians. What many young people lack in broad knowledge and experience, they more than make up for in enthusiasm, drive, and determination, while maintaining a questioning attitude. People must challenge and be challenged for the project to win.

Management must focus effort on project teams and group functioning as a whole and eliminate departmental territorial protectionist thinking. Many offshore competitors are successful because they have the ability to function as a group.

Management must accept the fact that in order to implement FMS many operational and organizational changes may be required, including changes possibly affecting their own jobs. Management must take responsibility to orchestrate the necessary changes organizationally, operationally, and procedurally.

To counteract resistance to change management must make sure all employees readily see senior-level support and dedication to FMS through regular meetings. These meetings should be open informal question and answer get togethers that stress the benefits, advantages and anticipated results of the automation. Additionally they should stress the importance of each employee's contribution towards that effort.

Bringing in outside consultants to assist or advise on FMS or other automation improvement plans and implementation may be management's way of ensuring success that " we are on the right track"

The external consultants should be avoided, if at all possible, as their use just adds to the communication, credibility, and lack of thrust issues. A strong internal FMS user team should be formed to be educated and work closely with a strong and reputable supplier in a partnership approach to FMS.

Physical planning for FMS involves close teamwork between system users and suppliers, along with researching analyzing, information gathering, compiling, and coordinating a vast amount of complex technical, issues and data. Physical planning forms the foundation on which the success or failure of an FMS installation is built.

Planning Preparation Guidelines :

The planning process for FMS projects is simpler once responsibilities, accountabilities, and the process itself are clearly understood.

Once broad based goals, objectives and a technical feasibility study have been completed to determine if FMS is the acceptable answer, the next step is top establish some planning preparation guidelines.

Form the Project Team : Team members should be carefully selected as per functional requirements. They must have responsibility, accountability ad decision making authority for their particular department or unit. Included in the process is the selection of strong project managers. This individual must be part lawyer, and part engineer, and part diplomat. The right person must be chosen on the basis of objectivity, knowledge, experience, and proven past performance. They must not be chosen on a "who's is available today" basis.

Understand the process : The members should understand what is involved in the planning process and the step process of FMS planning. This is a fundamental process and all team members should understand it so as to not to overlook vital planning elements.

Review goals , objectives, and purpose : A functional description of the desired result s should be discussed in terms of what FMS means to company productivity and profitability. Reviewing goals, objectives, and the purpose of a major FMS purchase should be communicated in terms of hardware and computer purchases. Senior management's involvement at this stage is extremely important to how people see the importance and projected success of the project.

Talk to the vendors : Get potential suppliers involved as early as possible. Involving suppliers early, even at the conceptual development stage, provides expert advice and educational help to the project team, builds team confidence and cohesiveness, and increases chances of success. Early suppliers involvement helps to some degree to ensure against finding a better, cheaper, faster, or more efficient solution, later on by testing ideas on suppliers. Most vendors are willing to share conceptual ideas at the initial proposal stage. And involving suppliers early in the conceptual stage helps build user- supplier rapport, a necessary ingredient for the teamwork effort required later between user and supplier.

Avoid Early Cost Saving Estimates : Early involvement is necessary for preliminary planning and to generate concept preparation. Cost and savings estimates should be avoided at this tome so as not to establish premature capital involvement goals that take priority over productivity improvement goals that in turn take priority over productivity improvement gains. Drive towards achieving stated productivity inventory reduction, machines utilization and part throughput goals as the first priority. Cost and savings estimates come easier with maximized efforts in these areas.

Determine User-Supplier Relationship And Approach : The greater benefits are achieved when a teamwork approach is used. Turning everything over to the supplier in a turnkey approach is a myth and can seriously affect FMS success. The user-supplier team is specially attractive when the supplier can provide products that represent over 50% of the system cost. Acting as the prime contractor allows the supplier to control the system vendors, which saves both time and money. The customer then becomes the evaluator, decision maker, and coordinator while the supplier becomes the designer, developer, and prime integrator. Success of the project becomes as important to the supplier as it does to the user.

Prepare a detailed master plan : A detailed master plan should be started at this time, ideally set up on a personal computer with one of the many commercially available software scheduling software packages. Ideally an FMS mile stone chart is prepared and is shown below. From there, setting up the detailed master plan on a personal computer will permit ease of master plan change and growth as the project matures. It is necessary to establish this master plan very early along the lines of a critical path network, identifying al the many task to be performed and by whom, along with start and completion dates. The master plan should be kept up to date and circulated to all responsible individuals by the project manager. It is the controlling document of the entire project; it establishes commitments, responsibilities, deadlines, and activities.