AMR 2013 - ICT 33% of survey complete. This survey is to be filled in by representatives from UK manufacturing businesses (including production, logistics and associated operations) that are, or potentially could be, the end user of ICT products and services. Please do not complete this survey if this doesn't apply to you. Question Title * 1. Was your total ICT expenditure (including hardware, service, software, infrastructure, training, etc) from last financial year less, more or the same? Less More The Same Question Title * 2. Will your proposed expenditure for next financial year be less, more or the same? Less More The Same Question Title * 3. Which of the following IT and technology-based initiatives is currently the highest priority within the company, in the sense that there is a current project or that one is planned to start in the next 12 months. Upgrading IT infrastructures Financial or accounting software Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Management Information System (MIS) Use of internet for sales and marketing Systems integration Introduce RFID/wireless technology to any part of your operations Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Supply chain management and integration (SCM) Product engineering data management (PDM) Customer relationship management (CRM) Intranet development Warehouse management systems Business Intelligence, analytics and reporting software Wireless technology E-business Use of public or private web exchange(s) Enterprise application integration (EAI) Product lifecycle management (PLM) Application service provision (ASP) Advanced Planning and Scheduling / Finite capacity planning and scheduling Time & Attendance / Workforce labour management Simulation and modelling of products or processes Question Title * 4. Over the past 12 months, have you made any new IT investments to improve your company's performance in any of the following business processes? (Mark as many as apply). Product design and development To manage the Supply chain Improving energy/resource efficiency Planning and scheduling operational processes Analytics and reporting (for example to monitor sales and other financial and non-financial information) Workforce management Logistics / Transport / Distribution Forecasting demand Customising offers and services to customers Managing customer relationships Developing new business models Financial management Plant and asset maintenance Question Title * 5. Have your new ICT initiatives been focused primarily on improving existing processes and ways of working or have they focused on meeting new challenges and requirements faced by the company? Improving existing processes and ways of working Meeting new challenges and requirements Question Title * 6. What challenges have resulted in the introduction of new ICT initiatives? (Mark as many as apply). Offshoring manufacturing functions (inc - relocation; outsourcing and new investment abroad) Heightened competition from low cost competitors Innovation / product development Service More geographically dispersed customer base Regulatory and compliance issues Reducing environmental impact of business Increasing price competitiveness Customer pressure to adopt new processes Raising innovation performance i.e. development of new products or processes Business growth Productivity improvement Don't know Question Title * 7. To what extent did the introduction of ICT lead to an improvement in the following? A significant improvement A moderate improvement No improvement Productivity Productivity A significant improvement Productivity A moderate improvement Productivity No improvement Profitability Profitability A significant improvement Profitability A moderate improvement Profitability No improvement Energy/resource efficiency Energy/resource efficiency A significant improvement Energy/resource efficiency A moderate improvement Energy/resource efficiency No improvement Competitiveness/efficiency Competitiveness/efficiency A significant improvement Competitiveness/efficiency A moderate improvement Competitiveness/efficiency No improvement Inventory/stock levels Inventory/stock levels A significant improvement Inventory/stock levels A moderate improvement Inventory/stock levels No improvement Manufacturing costs Manufacturing costs A significant improvement Manufacturing costs A moderate improvement Manufacturing costs No improvement Required downtime Required downtime A significant improvement Required downtime A moderate improvement Required downtime No improvement Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction A significant improvement Customer satisfaction A moderate improvement Customer satisfaction No improvement Question Title * 8. Which of the following phrases best describes the nature of your IT deployment at your company? Company-wide strategy Departmental strategy Tactical rather than strategic Question Title * 9. Thinking about your company's customer relations management, have you (or will you) implemented new software solutions to achieve any of the following? (Mark as many as apply). Improved marketing of new products and services Drive development of new products and services Deliver higher levels of customer service Improve/maintain customer loyalty Target new market segments / increase market share Deliver service support to customers Improve distribution/delivery times Increase sales productivity Don't know Question Title * 10. What do you believe are the current major barriers to investment and implementation of IT within your organisation? (Mark as many as apply). Lack of skills required to implement and maintain IT solutions Insufficient management buy-in Lack of confidence / understanding in the potential return on investment Employee attitudes/resistance to change Cost of investment Overall risk of such a project in current economic times Technology not sufficiently matched to business needs and exiting manufacturing Previous experiences of IT projects Pace at which technology becomes obsolete No barriers experienced / envisaged Question Title * 11. Thinking about your IT infrastructure as a whole, to what extent do you use open source software? (eg. Linux, MySQL, Apache, LibreOffice etc). Only choose 1 We don't use it, and have no plans to. We don't use it, but recognise that we might in the future. We do use it in certain aspects of our operations. We consider ourselves to be sophisticated users of open source, deploying it wherever it suits our business. Other (please specify) Next