About this Book

The past decade has witnessed a rebirth in the competitive landscape of manufacturing. From a global environment of rapidly changing consumer tastes and technologies, a group of aggressive and highly competent industrial competitors has emerged. No longer can companies build a manufacturing advantage around standard designs and mass production or products that contain an "acceptable percentage" of defects. Managers everywhere now share a strategic imperative to pursue "world-class" productivity, quality, and flexibility in manufacturing. Organizations cannot compete in the global marketplace without manufacturing capabilities that match or exceed those of the best in the world. In Manufacturing Renaissance, the editors have gathered 20 articles from the Harvard Business Review on manufacturing strategy and practice - all published as intense global industrial competition has forced a reexamination of many long-held beliefs about manufacturing and its role in the modern enterprise. The contributions included in this volume - beginning historically with Wickham Skinner's classic "The Focused Factory" - have profoundly influenced the theory and practice of manufacturing and will continue to guide the future transformation of manufacturing management. Manufacturing Renaissance offers lessons for developing strategic manufacturing capabilities drawn from the experiences of leading-edge companies and covers a wide range of critical issues. Peter Drucker both describes and predicts the shift of manufacturing from an isolated collection of work stations to a system integrated with the rest of the organization's functions. Robert Hayes and Kim Clark illuminate key managerial tools for increasingproductivity that are based on reducing manufacturing complexity and confusion, as well as on a commitment to organization-wide learning. Joseph Juran provides a firsthand description of the Japanese post-war quality movement, analyzes the response of American manufacturers, and attributes Japanese quality leadership to the active participation of senior management. The editors' capstone essay suggests that staying on top today requires that organizations reassess their strategic goals and focus attention on building manufacturing capabilities that support the strategic flexibility that will move them "beyond" world-class. Together, the contributions to Manufacturing Renaissance highlight the multitude of inputs - including technology, facilities, systems, and processes - as well as the high level of concentrated commitment and leadership necessary to manage strategically successful manufacturing organizations. This authoritative collection captures the major new and enduring streams of thought that have evolved since the late 1960s, when Skinner first warned of the disadvantages of mass production. In so doing, it will help business leaders to navigate the competitive terrain of the future.