ABSTRACT
The productivity of a craft industry with an associated work organization based on an individually organized social system is limited by the skill and working capacity of individuals. The first stage in mechanization, by which individuals are given power-driven assistance, has led to considerable increases in output. But productivity based on this level of mechanization is still confined by the extent to which an individual can be assisted by mechanical power. Unless the system manages to transcend individual task organization its productivity will still be limited. Even when self-correcting and self-programming machines are used by which whole fabrications can be put into the control of one individual sitting at an instrument panel, there is still a need for a complex and differentiated system to control machine service and maintenance and to link the operations of raw material acquisition, marketing, manning, and finance.
