Identifying Enablers of E-Manufacturing

The term e-manufacturing refers to the ability of a manufacturing system to integrate various inputs using internet and intranet. With the market being increasingly competitive and customer oriented desiring to get best of the quality at cheapest available price of a product in shortest possible time, the role of e-manufacturing is pivotal towards the success of a company. Another important fact is that each customer may desire to have a certain different set of values added to the product being purchased. Customers want to voice their concerns directly to manufacturers thereby necessitating an interface to hear them in real-time and take suitable action thereupon, if needed, in real-time. As such identifying the enablers of e-manufacturing has become important for manufacturer in customer-oriented manufacturing to lure new customers along with retaining the old customers. It will also result in closing the gap between demand and supply of a product. This paper tries to assimilate the key enablers of e-manufacturing.