Informação para a indústria: a experiência do NRI-CE na prestação do serviço de respostas técnicas a micro, pequenas e médias indústrias

Abstract

In this research, questions related to information for industry are indentified and analyzed at industrial segments of micro, small and medium-sized industries of food, chemical and metal-mechanic branches, located in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, taking into consideration their characteristics, activities, problems, importance and objectives, as well as the use and importance of information. This is an exploratory research, framed as a case study. The data were gotten from a half-structured interview in five industries, using the systematic observation technique. It was concluded that there is, among the visited MSMIs, a clear tendency to the use of information and to enhance their hability to render better services. In the administrative area, the most used information sources are the informal ones, predominating the contact with the suppliers, experts and co-workers. In the technological areas however, there is a certain interest in using formal sources, emphasizing the suppliers catalogs, specialized technical magazines and technical standards. On the other hand, it was noticed that in the visited industries, information plays an important role becoming the raw material for the administrative and technological decisions being considered, however, it was also noticed that the process of taking decisions is centralized by the manager-owners and the administrative decisions are based on personal experience and often they are empirically based. However, technology development is aided by information coming from outside of the organization through specialized magazines, newspaper and examiners. Among the problems faced by those industrial branches, some are outstanding: lack of specialized workmanship; lack of organizational structure: use of obsolete equipment and methods; lack of formal production planning: precarious accounting system and lack of floating capital.