Generic manufacturing information systems development via template prototyping

There are a number of difficulties with software support for production management decision making in small manufacturing enterprises. System requirement specification and total system cost are two major hurdles. A generic approach to the system design will enable the development costs to be spread across a group of users, while prototyping offers the potential to involve users in the system specification and design. However existing prototyping methodologies have not focused on producing generic software. The template prototyping concepts developed here, together with the derived methodology, based on object-orientated structures, contribute significantly to overcoming these difficulties. The use of the developed software in practice and as a learning tool in computer aided production management for SME environments is outlined.