The Critical Success Factors for Manufacturing Execution Systems Adoption in the Defense Industry of Turkey: An Industrial Case Study

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) adoption using the case of a Turkish defense industry firm with both a quantitative and a qualitative research design. After the critical factors that are used in the adoption and implementation assessment in different countries and sectors are determined in the literature, about one hundred questionnaires and five interviews are conducted at a defense industry firm. The paper draws upon Information System (IS) success models and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) research models to develop and test a model of MES adoption to the extent of individual use effect and the individual work performance effect as dependent variables. The results of the analysis reveal that communication and business process reengineering are positively related to both dependent variables, while complexity of MES has a negative relationship with individual use effect. Top management/supervisor support and compatibility of software and hardware are positively associated with the adoption of MES. Moreover, qualitative analysis shows similar results, and thus increases the validity of the findings. The results indicate that more customization is needed and more attention should be paid during the MES implementation for better adoption.