International FAIM Conference 24th : 2014 : San Antonio, TexasUniversity of Texas at San Antonio. Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean SystemsJärvenpää, EevaTokola, HenriSalonen, TapioLanz, MinnaKoho, MikkoTuokko, Reijo2022-07-112022-07-112014http://dx.doi.org/10.14809/faim.2014.1135https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/956Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing, held May 20-23, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and organized by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, University of Texas at San AntonioIncludes bibliographical referencesIn today's highly dynamic manufacturing environment smooth information flow between planning and shop floor level is essential to ensure rapid reaction to changes. Unfortunately, the currently utilized dispersed MS Excel applications for production scheduling and control don't provide such an information flow. The transparency between different operational levels, and therefore the big picture, is lacking. To illustrate these challenges, this paper presents the first results of interviews, conducted among Finnish machine building companies, relating to the current practices and challenges as well as future requirements for manufacturing operations management and control systems.en-USMachinery industry--Finland--ManagementProduction planningProduction schedulingEnterprise resource planningLean manufacturingArticle