From Filing and Fitting to Flexible Manufacturing: A Study in the Evolution of Process Control

Ramchandran Jaikumar

Foundations and Trends(R) in Technology, Information and Operations Management, 2005, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-120

Abstract: A well-known but previously unpublished monograph by Ramchandran Jaikumar (1945–1998) on the nature and history of manufacturing. The development of mass manufacturing ranks as one of the most important contributions to human living conditions ever – of the same magnitude as agriculture and modern medicine. This monograph examines the development of manufacturing over several centuries, through the eyes of a single industry and company. Throughout this period, the key has been precise control of manufacturing processes, rather than production speed per se . There have been six revolutionary transformations in manufacturing, each involving a shift in hard technology, the nature of human work, and the nature of process control. Each epochal change was a step in the evolution of manufacturing from art to science. Each required a different ethos of process control and forced a new system of manufacture. Machines, the nature of work, and the nature of the organization all had to change in concert.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/0200000001 (application/xml)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:now:fnttom:0200000001

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Foundations and Trends(R) in Technology, Information and Operations Management from now publishers
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lucy Wiseman ().