Innovative Production Machines and Systems Conference

The developed prototype tool was tested in five companies in UK: an industrial adhesive manufacturer; a mail delivery service provider; a pharmaceutical firm; a tobacco manufacturer; and a leak detector manufacturer, using a process research based on action research methodology. In each case, a number of workshops were organised to assist managers in applying TAPS to address production operations management problems. Further information on these cases can be found at Tan & Platts (2003). The testing cases demonstrated that the prototype tool and its process were feasible. The company participants considered that the tool enabled them to build a connectance model which provides an overview of the issues that they would like to address, and the tool built-in function i.e. filter functions provided them with a structured way to focus their analysis. In general, they pointed that the built-in functions of the software tool was easy to apply. The participants also felt that the TAPS network structure provided a powerful visual diagram to assist them to get an overall view of a variable and its connectance, which helped them to determine a set of improvement alternatives to work with. The AHP evaluation was well received by the participants. With AHP evaluation module, they pointed that TAPS supports their analysis at every stage (problem definition, ideas generation, and evaluation) of a decision making process that the In general, the company participants agreed that TAPS gave a clear and systematic approach for analysing and diagnosing a particular problem.