MANUFACTURING AND TECHNOLOGY: The Sweeping Revolution in Manufacturing

Manufacturing has suddenly developed a whole new perspective. In the last few years, manufacturing management has broken out of the confinement of a century's accumulation of stagnant wisdom. These old concepts had so confined the thinking of industrial managers that the conventional factory had gradually become an anachronistic institution. But now the conventional factory has been thrust into a totally unaccustomed role. It is no longer the corporate villain—the creator of costs and absorber of capital. For better or worse, it is now a critical strategic resource.