Integrated Manufacturing: Redesign the Organization before Implementing Flexible Technology

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Eighth International Conference on CAD/CAM Robotics and Factories of the Future. See: “Future Factories and Today’s Organizations,” Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on CAD/CAM Robotics and Factories of the Future, Metz, France, 17–19 August 1992 (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1992).

2. Y. Monden, Toyota Production System (Norcross, Georgia: Industrial Engineering and Management Press, Institute of Industrial Engineers, 1983).

3. See, for example, W.G. Doll and M.A. Vonderembse, “Forging a Partnership to Achieve Competitive Advantage: The CIM Challenge,” MIS Quarterly 11 (1987): 205–220; and

J.D. Goldhar and M. Jelinek, “Computer-Integrated Flexible Manufacturing: Organizational, Economic, and Strategic Implications,” Interfaces 15 (1985): 94–105.

4. See J.F. Krafcik, “Triumph of the Lean Production System,” Sloan Management Review, Fall 1988, pp. 41–52;

R.W. Schmenner, “The Merit of Making Things Fast,” Sloan Management Review, Fall 1988, pp. 11–17; and

R.W. Schmenner and B. Rho, “An International Comparison of Factory Productivity,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management 10 (1990): 16–31.

5. M. Perona, G. Spina, and F. Turco, “Success Measure of Just-inTime: Shifting Manufacturing Trade-Offs,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Just-in-Time Manufacturing Systems: Operational Planning and Control Issues, Montreal, 2–4 October 1991 (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1991), pp. 333–350.

6. See, for example, P.R. Duimering and F. Safayeni, “A Study of the Organizational Impact of the Just-in-Time Production System,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Just-in-Time Manufacturing Systems: Operational Planning and Control Issues, Montreal, 2–4 October 1991 (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1991), pp. 19–32; and

F. Safayeni, L. Purdy, R. Van Engelen, and S. Pal, “The Difficulties of Just-in-Time Implementation: A Classification Scheme,” International Journal of Operations and Production Management 11 (1991): 27–36.

7. M.J. Ragotte, “The Effect of Human Operator Variability on the Throughput of an AGV System, A Case Study: General Motors Car Assembly Plant Door AGV System” (Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo, Department of Management Sciences, Master’s Thesis, 1990).

8. Goldhar and Jelinek (1985).

9. Krafcik (1988);

Schmenner (1988);

Schmenner and Rho (1990); and

J.G. Wacker, “The Complementary Nature of Manufacturing Goals by Their Relationship to Throughput Time: A Theory of Internal Variability of Production Systems,” Journal of Operations Management 7 (1987): 91–106.

10. Wacker (1987).

11. P.R. Duimering, “The Organizational Impact of the Just-in-Time Production System” (Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo, Department of Management Sciences, Master’s Thesis, 1991); and Duimering and Safayeni (1991); and Safayeni et al. (1991).

12. W.R. Ashby, An Introduction to Cybernetics (London: Chapman and Hall, 1957); and

S. Beer, Brain of the Firm: The Managerial Cybernetics of Organization (Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, 1981).

13. J.D. Thompson, Organizations in Action (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967); and

J. Galbraith, Designing Complex Organizations (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1973).

14. H. Mintzberg, The Structuring of Organizations (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1979).

15. Thompson (1967).

16. Galbraith (1973). Other authors have examined organizational implications of increased interdependence under JIT from other perspectives. For example, Klein has looked at the impact on individual worker autonomy. See:

J.A. Klein, “A Reexamination of Autonomy in Light of New Manufacturing Practices,” Human Relations 44 (1991): 21–39. Wilkinson and Oliver have examined the impact on power and control within organizations. See:

B. Wilkinson and N. Oliver, “Power, Control, and the Kanban,” Journal of Management Studies 26 (1989): pp. 47–58.

17. Duimering and Safayeni (1991).

18. Doll and Vonderembse (1987); and Goldhar and Jelinek (1985).

19. K.N. McKay, F.R. Safayeni, and J.A. Buzacott, “Job-Shop Scheduling Theory: What Is Relevant?” Interfaces 18 (1988): 84–90.

20. K.E. Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1969).

21. R.M. Cyert and K.R. MacCrimmon, “Organizations,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, eds. G. Lindzey and E. Aronson (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1968).

22. Goldhar and Jelinek (1985); and

P.L. Nemetz and L.W. Fry, “Flexible Manufacturing Organizations: Implications for Strategic Formulation and Organizational Design,” Academy of Management Review 13 (1988): 627–638.

23. Incidentally, one of the authors currently drives a late model North American car with automatic door locks and standard windows, but would still have bought the car if these features were available only as a package.

23. Beer (1981).