The Anachronistic Factory

Industrial manufacture is the principal source of our national wealth, and it supports all our other activities; consequently its wellbeing is of crucial importance to us all. It has been developing in three main streams — process manufacture, flowline or mass production, and batch manufacture — and of these only the first has kept in step with the parallel development of society. In the others, the trends of management organization and the work patterns which this has created have been steadily veering into conflict with the values, aspirations and expectations of the people who have to make the industrial system work. The effects are visible now, and unless the patterns are changed, large sectors of industry could eventually become unworkable, because the qualities and skills needed in an individual are unlikely to be combined with a willingness to do the type of job offered. An account of the present position and possible directions of change in flowline and batch production is given, which satisfy the dual criteria of providing improved efficiency and a better match with society.