ABSTRACT
Manufacturing as a business-manufacturing with a capital “M”—had become Big Business. Operations were closely monitored through the short lens of prudent financial management. Manufacturing with a small “m,” the activity performed on the shop floor, was a cost to be squeezed. Labor and materials were expendable. The relationships between management and labor, and management and suppliers were almost universally cast by management as adversarial. Workers were laid off and vendors played one against another as deemed necessary in pursuit of cost efficiency.
