Human Systems Management

After touring Japanese factories, especially those of Komatsu, a world leader in construction machinery, it became clear that Japanese managers applied their productivity strategies in a way that motivated employee performance. These business strategies appeared effective because the Japanese were equally concerned about developing a realistic strategy and understanding the planning and control process itself. This paper attempts to first describe what is effective business strategy. Then Komatsu's successful application of quality circles and total quality control is provided as an example, which may provide some insights into Japanese management practice as well. More importantly, the paper will indicate how an effective strategy like Komatsu's commitment to total quality control can help any business adapt to change.

The technology of small batch production in Sweden is changing dramatically and with it has come a range of innovations in the organization of work. Flexibility objectives are driving the changes. They generally result in smaller, more responsive, product focusssed units based on re-organized material handling, faster product throughput times and partly unmanned manufacturing. Cycle times and the individual differences of workers are being reassessed. While Sweden has legislated participation in the workplace, it works less well than most had hoped. The prospects for developing high commitment work designs are also not very optimistic as Sweden continues to accomplish its successful organizational work innovations through the pragmatic orientation of its industrial engineers. This apparent reluctance to involve workers gives long term cause for concern, but in the short run the accomplishments of Sweden's engineering infrastructure are impressive. Sweden continues to provide leadership in work organization designs on the factory floor.

Powerful marketing, economic and technological forces are driving manufacturing toward greater functional integration. Computer integrated manufacturing and flexible manufacturing systems will be the logical outgrowth of these pressures. Functional integration will place special demands upon the people in the factory environment of the future, affecting jobs and organization structure. Specialized jobs, based upon ‘scientific management’ will yield to the multi skilled worker. Flexible work roles will in turn affect training, employee motivation and manufacturing organization structure. The authors discuss implications of these trends for introducing new manufacturing technology into existing facilities.

Manufacturing industries face a new wave of modernization. Computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) can no longer be seen as only a ‘high tech’ experiment. Installing flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) becomes more and more an important strategy for improving productivity in batch production. The paper suggests that attention has to be paid not only to technological problems but also to an adequate manpower policy. Problems of work reorganization and labour savings have to be considered. For illustration the process of introducing a new developed FMS in a big West German metal manufacturing company is described and analysed. Because of the key role manpower still has to play in those highly complex systems, the focus is on the manpower approach regarding job design and work force structures. Experiences are quoted which suggest that – in order to ensure high flexibility, productivity, quality, and utilization times – a homogeneous job structure on a high level of skills might best fit computerized equipment.

Increasingly, the issues and problems faced by organizations seem to defy resolutions by the traditional decision tools and techniques developed over the past 30 years (primarily in the fields of operations research and quantitative modeling). These techniques were designed to solve well-defined problems that occur repeatedly in the management of organizations. Social and economic turbulence, however, has conspired to make the utility of such techniques questionable. There is a growing need for strategic problem solving approaches which allow decision makers to interpret complex situations, constructively tap differing perspectives, and detect emerging social and scientific concerns. This article describes one such approach to strategic problem-solving, which consists of a sequence of eight steps; initial activities are oriented toward expanding the range of information available through literature review, networking, and surveys. Emphasis in later steps is on narrowing and synthesizing the range of options and strategies through interactive workshops involving key stakeholders and experts, and focused project reports. The approach is illustrated using an actual case application.