The Management of Productivity and Technology in Manufacturing

This volume is concerned with the nature of new manufacturing technologies, such as CAD/CAM and robotics, as well as apÂ- propriate methodologies for evaluating whether such technologies are financially and organizationally viable in particular contexts. The chapters included here were commissioned as papers for presenÂ- tation at The Wharton Conference on Productivity, Technology, and Organizational Innovation, which took place in Philadelphia on December 8 and 9 of 1983. The conference was sponsored by The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation. There has been a surge of interest in the area of manufacturing over the past ten years as managers have come to realize that the operations function is critical to remaining competitive. New status has been given to factory and operations managers. New programs revitalizing manufacturing and distribution have been introduced in organizations. Corporate strategy is now explicitly considering operations and manufacturing functions. And the curricula of leading business schools are reflecting the rapidly advancing research on technology management and manufacturing operations. In spite of these important signs of progress, we are clearly just at the beginning of understanding the issues involved here. The present volume provides a state-of-the-art review of the realities of technology management and manufacturing strategy. As described in the Editor’s Introduction, we address four topics: The Nature of New Manufacturing Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing Strategy, Productivity Management, and Technology Management and OrganÂ- ization. These issues are clearly very important themes for U.S.