Abstract: Studies show that enterprise information integration faces complex organisational, technical, and social shortcomings. As a result of these shortcomings, Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), concerned with the integration of commercial, financial, and engineering systems, was merely applied to integration of data, communication, and processes, and a fully computerised integration in the manufacturing system was considered unlikely to be the main model in the near future. Therefore, the purpose of this plenary lecture is to explore how people, automation, and complexity can be effectively and successfully integrated into a manufacturing enterprise information system. Based on the research's qualitative findings supported by authorities, evidence, or logic, essentially, it is argued that the enterprise information integration system development should be a multi-perspective activity focused on a variety of interdisciplinary research areas that should focus, incorporate, and assist the human operator, and that the wisdom of simplicity in order to control complexity should prevail against the attempt to develop complex systems that usually are a consequence of unnecessary requirements. This exploration also leads to the need for an enterprise information architecture framework for problem solving that should be aligned with the business practices and the ways in which the companies are run, and which finally leads to a system of systems which is architectural-centric, process-centric, human-centric, and in line with the IT infrastructure trends.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Ionel Botef graduated in 1977 from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania, with a Masters in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. In the 1980s he worked as a senior engineer with Turbomecanica, a manufacturer of aircraft engines, where, for example, he coordinated the technology for SPEY 512-14 DW aircraft engine, a cooperation programme with Rolls-Royce, UK. In the 1990s he moved to South Africa where he achieved his PhD from the Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. From 1998 he has been a full time academic with the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Aeronautical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His research interests focus on interdisciplinary research that include company integration, information systems, manufacturing processes and systems, materials science, software engineering, and computational techniques.