The fact-theory dialogue in an industrial context: the case of statistical quality control

Denis Bayart
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Denis Bayart: CRG - Centre de recherche en gestion - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Statistical control of quality provides a useful example of the way in which industry practices a pragmatic- scientific approach for managing production operations. Knowledge, applied to action, has circumscribed theories with means–end constraints, feedback deadlines, and information economies. These have, surprisingly, led to further original and fruitful theoretical questions. Moreover, the need to adapt scientific methods to a little-qualified workforce produced innovative cognitive tools. This paper studies these aspects of the knowledge-creation process in an industrial activity and shows that the metaphor of a ‘dialogue' organized between facts and theory is, in this context, more accurate than the model of hypothesis testing and planned experiment.

Keywords: knowledge for action; epistemology; Deming cycle; statistical quality control; information costs; cognitive tools; pragmatism; empirical knowledge creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00263050v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in European Management Review, 2006, 3, pp.87-99

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00263050

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