Just-In-Time Inventory Management
Maintaining appropriate levels of inventory is a fundamental aspect of operations. In order to insure a smooth flow of work and delivery to customers, companies need to keep some amount of both raw materials and finished product on hand. But histori...
Impact of Government Policy and Social Issues on Productivity
Because productivity tends to be a national issue, there's an ongoing debate about what role government should play. Clearly, government policies in areas such as interest rates, taxation, capital investment and tariffs have a major impact on produc...
Defining and Calculating Productivity
An accurate measure of productivity can be a useful tool in defining problems and deciding where to direct resources and energy. There are many ways to calculate productivity, but almost all begin with a simple formula: productivity is output per un...
Employee Morale and the Auto Industry
During the 1960's and 70's, Japanese auto companies developed a new approach to managing their workers. They placed the workers on teams and gave them significantly more autonomy than ever before. This led to higher morale, which in turn led to bett...
Japanese and American Production Models
As long as other countries lacked industrial capacity, especially following World War II, U.S. companies could absorb tremendous inefficiency and still compete. All that changed when the Japanese developed new methods of integrating various aspects ...