Production technology and organization

Abstract

Staying competitive by means of innovations in manufacturing represents a big challenge for a company's management. New computer-controlled techniques in the field of production (such as Computer-Aided-Design and Flexible Manufacturing Systems) offer increased automation and rationalization as well as custom-tailored production. Before these opportunities can be put into practice management has to switch its thinking and attitudes away from categories like economies of scale or experience curves and towards flexibility, quality, readiness to deliver, and service.

The crucial part of this new approach is a changed understanding of how to organize the tension between strategy and manufacturing. Personal and structural resistances against the implementation of new techniques indicate where problems will occur for modified organization structures. To use new technology efficiently an early and comprehensive analysis of the relationship between strategy, organization, and manufacturing is necessary.