ABSTRACT
The "flotilla", or module, organization of the manufacturing process promises to combine the advantages of standardization and flexibility. The systems approach embeds the physical process of making things, that is, manufacturing, in the economic process of business, the business of creating value. The Japanese owe their leadership in manufacturing quality largely to their embrace of Deming's precepts in the 1950s and 1960s. US industry ignored their contributions for forty years and is only now converting to Statistical Quality Control (SQC), with companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Xerox among the new disciples. Taylor and his disciples were just as determined as Deming to build quality and productivity into the manufacturing process. The human-relations approach sees the knowledge and pride of line workers as the greatest resource for controlling and improving quality and productivity. Manufacturing cost accounting is the third leg of the stool, the other legs being scientific management and the assembly line, on which modern manufacturing industry rests.
