An introduction to the development of production management theory

In the long history of human civilization, non-family production organizations have existed for many years, the world's seven ancient wonders, is the result of these organizational activities. China's ancient farming peoples, in order to fight against nature, or to defend themselves against nomadic encroachment, formed a unified state on a large scale long before the formation of a unified state in Europe, and gained a lot of experience in production management from large-scale engineering and construction and nationwide coordination of resources. The application of movable type in movable type printing, one of the four great inventions of China, was the forerunner of the interchangeable and modular design of parts in modern production. But the formation of modern production management theories began with the Industrial Revolution.

1. Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century in Britain, and spread to Europe and North America very quickly after that. 1776, Adam Smith pointed out the superiority of division of labor and specialization in his The Wealth of Nations: ① Reducing the scope of work of each individual can make workers more skillful in their work, and therefore do more work. work more skilled, and therefore do faster; ② due to specialization, can reduce the change from one kind of work to another kind of work needed to change tools, raw materials, etc.; ③ due to specialization after the work tends to simplify the action, it is easier to develop the appropriate machinery to improve productivity. the end of the nineteenth century, the United States appeared in the production of firearms with interchangeable parts design of the arms factories, pioneering the standardization of the application of the first in the metal-working industry. The application of standardization in the metalworking industry. Division of labor, specialization and standardization of parts increased the requirements of production for management and coordination, so that production management as a science began to receive attention.

2. Scientific management era

1886, the United States, some people put forward the concept of workshop management. 1906, Tyro (Frederick W. Taylor) in his paper "metal cutting process" put forward the production management of the four aspects of the responsibility,

(1) the development of a kind of science of management to replace the management based on empirical methods;

(2) selecting workers who do each job well, summarizing their methods of work, and using them to train other workers;

(3) developing a collaborative relationship between workers and managers;

(4) a rational division of labor between managers and workers, with each performing his or her own duties.

This was the original idea of what came to be known as the Principles of Scientific Management.

In the same period, there is Gantt (Herry L. Gantt ), invented the use of long bar charts to arrange the work progress; Gilbert (Lillian Gilbreth) and others, conducted the study of movement; Ford (Henry Ford), created the assembly line production organization, in fact, solved the problem of the work progress; Gilbert ( Lillian Gilbretri ) and others, carried out action research; Ford (Henry Ford), created the assembly line production organization, in fact, solved the object processing continuity and continuous use of production resources in the mass production of unity.

3. Human Relationships Era

The pioneers of scientific management, in their writings, have recognized the role of the human factor in management, but they emphasized most on the issue of human efficiency. For the social needs of people's research, is in Mayo (Elton Mayo) under the guidance of Professor first in 1927 ^ - Chi-32 years in the United States Western Electric Company's Hawthorne plant. The experiments at the Hawthorne plant pointed out the influence of workers' attitudes toward work and their understanding of the meaning of work on work efficiency. The human relations doctrine was not intended to discredit research on work efficiency in the era of scientific management, but to introduce psychological and anthropological considerations into production management:managers should be interested in worker participation.

4. The era of management science

Management science began with operations research during World War II. During the war, operations research sought decisions that would improve the effectiveness of military operations through mathematical analysis of military data. Soon, these analytical methods were also used in the decision-making process for government and industrial problems. Management science, the application of mathematical and statistical theory to business management. It involves the use of models (usually equations and formulas) to describe and explain problems in business management and to find solutions. The goal is usually to find optimal solutions. Thus, management science does not seek to change the content of management, but provides new tools for solving management problems.

5. Information Age

The advances in information technology and communication technology have had a tremendous impact on both business methods and management processes. The development of satellite communications, graphic facsimile, and electronic data interchange has facilitated the conduct of global business. At the same time, the removal of trade barriers has made it possible for enterprises to compete anywhere in the world by borrowing the means of communication. For example, China's township enterprises can through the Internet (lntetnet), in the United States bidding for the General Electric Company's component purchase orders, which greatly increases the complexity of management. Improvements in the ability to collect, store, analyze, summarize, and communicate data have made it possible to reduce the number of management layers. The responsiveness of managers to changes in the environment and the flexibility of production systems can also be improved as a result. The relative shortening of the life cycle of high-technology products and the shortening of the product development cycle have accelerated the pace of operations. Production technology is also undergoing new changes. The use of computers has changed both the way business is run and the way production processes are controlled. The application of computers in accounting, production planning, tracking of order fulfillment and the preservation of personnel data has made it possible to apply the methods of management science to a wider range of production management. The application of computers in service industries, such as the global automated booking systems of airlines and the use of automated teller machines in banks, has had a dramatic impact on the operations of these industries. In process automation, the use of computers has led to a continuing increase in the flexibility and versatility of equipment in manufacturing. Material handling systems that can move materials to any desired location based on signals received from a computer. Computer-controlled robots have been able to completely replace the manual completion of the workpiece and tooling in the work of the mother machine replacement; machining centers and production machinery can be in the absence of human monitoring and assistance in the case of operation. The combination of automated material handling systems and automated production machinery under computer control allows factories to run unmanned for short periods of time. Designers can speed up design work considerably with the help of computerized drawing, simulation, and analysis programs. The data from the design work can be translated on the computer into operating instructions for the automated equipment. The application of these computer technologies is having a tremendous impact on the corporate culture of manufacturing and on the organization of production that has developed since the Industrial Revolution.

6. Contributions of the Japanese Production Method to the Theory of Production Management

While advances in information technology and automation can, to a certain extent, lead to increases in productivity and changes in production methods, advances in management practices can maximize the benefits of the new technologies. The concept of just-in-time production (J ust-in-Time), which originated in Japanese production management practices, can be applied around the world. These concepts are sometimes referred to as no-inventory production, meaning that products are manufactured with only minimal inventory and other resources. The company is guided by this philosophy, which is a pull approach to coordinating the operation of machining centers. One machining center machines a certain part in small batches only when the next machining center needs that part. In this case, the set-up cost of the machine must be small, the workers must have the skills to work on multiple machines, the company's supply of raw materials and outsourced parts must be reliable, the preventive maintenance of the equipment must be effective, and the quality control must be sufficient to avoid nonconforming products.

7. The Rise of the Service Industry

Technological advances in manufacturing and agriculture have made it possible to greatly reduce the number of people working in these industries. In some developed countries, agriculture and manufacturing have kept employment opportunities down while their share of GNP has remained constant. Former labor-intensive manufacturing firms have had to relocate to developing countries in order to survive, in addition to downsizing through automation. This has led some large companies to become multinationals. The number of workers in the service sector has reached more than sa% of the employed in some developed countries. China's tertiary industry is also booming with the development of market economy, whether in the national economy than some developed countries has reached accounted for more than 60% of the employed. China's tertiary industry has also flourished with the development of the market economy, both in terms of the proportion of the national economy accounted for by the employed population have a clear trend of growth. In manufacturing companies in developed countries, the number of direct production workers is rapidly decreasing, leading to a significant reduction in intermediate management work, all of which makes companies more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment.

Competitive pressures and technological advances are further forcing successful companies to seek improvements and changes, and production managers and other business managers must continually face and adapt to new challenges.