ABSTRACT
Factory revolution is a vague concept describing an activity that never seems to end. Evaluating the degree to which a manufacturing company can rapidly respond to change requires more than simply looking at a company's plant investment commitments. Some managers worry that introducing a new program such as 20 Keys would cause confusion, since their factories are already implementing some other goal-oriented program. Managers need to determine to what degree their companies can rapidly respond to change, and to regard such responsiveness as a standard for evaluating corporate strength. Japanese companies usually measure productivity in terms of labor, such as the number of product units produced per employee labor-hour or the number of employees needed to operate a particular machine. Although injuries often occur in unpredictable situations, daily attention to improvement through the 20 Keys can work wonders in making everyone more safety-conscious and creating accident-free workplaces.
