Some 70 percent of U.S. manufacturing output currently faces direct foreign competition. While American firms understand the individual components of their manufacturing processes, they must begin to work with manufacturing systems to develop world-class capabilities.


This new book identifies principles—termed foundations—that have proved effective in improving manufacturing systems. Authored by an expert panel, including manufacturing executives, the book provides recommendations for manufacturers, leading to specific action in three areas:




Management philosophy and practice.
Methods used to measure and predict the performance of systems.
Organizational learning and improving system performance through technology.


The volume includes in-depth studies of several key issues in manufacturing, including employee involvement and empowerment, using learning curves to improve quality, measuring performance against that of the competition, focusing on customer satisfaction, and factory modernization. It includes a unique paper on jazz music as a metaphor for participative manufacturing management.


Executives, managers, engineers, researchers, faculty, and students will find this book an essential tool for guiding this nation's businesses toward developing more competitive manufacturing systems.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
Report of the Committee on Foundations of Manufacturing
Executive Summary
Introduction
Overview
Management Practice
Measuring, Describing, and Predicting System Performance
Organizational Learning and Improving System Performance
Educational and Technological Challenges
Globally Competitive Manufacturing Practices
Involvement and Empowerment: The Modern Paradigm for Management Success
Implementation Projects: Decisions and Expenditures
Benchmarking
Improving Quality Through the Concept of Learning Curves
Organizing Manufacturing Enterprises for Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
The Interface Between Manufacturing Executives and Wall Street Visitors--Why Security Analysts Ask Some of the Questions That They Do
Taylorism and Professional Education
The Integrated Enterprise
Time as a Primary System Metric
Communication Barriers to Effective Manufacturing
Are There 'Laws' of Manufacturing?
Taking Risks in Manufacturing
Constant Change, Constant Challenge
Manufacturing Capacity Management Through Modeling and Simulation
The Power of Simple Models in Manufacturing
Improving Manufacturing Competitiveness Through Strategic Analysis
Going to the Gemba
Jazz: A Metaphor for High-Performance Teams
Consolidated Bibliography
Committee Membership
Biohgraphies of Contributing Authors
Index