COMPUTATIONAL PARALLELS BETWEEN OFFICE SYSTEMS AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT-SYSTEMS
(EN)
PAPAGEORGIOU, G
(EN)
MENTZAS, G
(EN)
This paper argues that although current information technology support addresses office information systems (OIS) and production management systems (PMS) as separate fields, their abstract computational models exhibit common features and their underlying technological basis is common. On the other hand, the effective operation of today's enterprises requires that (paper-related) information, found among the marketing, accounting, finance and sales departments, should be consistent with (production-related) information found in the engineering, inventory control, quality control, production scheduling and manufacturing departments. The paper puts forth the view that such a goal could be facilitated by the existence of heterogeneous, intelligent software entities with autonomous processing capabilities, that possess coordination and negotiation facilities and are organised in hierarchical societies.
(EN)
