Increasing Productivity
One way to increase productivity is by improving technology. Another is through long-term investment. Research and development, capital improvements, and workforce training can all be extremely expensive and may not pay off for years. But they do ge...
Operational Efficiency Case Study: General Dynamics
General Dynamics' Convair Division produces weapons for the military. Under pressure to increase efficiency, the company instituted "just-in-time" production in 1990. In addition, Convair installed an automated warehouse system and began training wo...
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...