Focused factories - limited vertical integration, Strategic Management

Assignment Help:

Focused Factories - Limited Vertical Integration

Japanese companies prefer specialisation (derived from Adam Smith's theories on division of labour), with a limited or focused span of activity. They believe that with fewer activities to control, their abilities to master skills and improve productivity, are enhanced. There are some stark comparisons. The Singer Sewing Machine Company in Scotland, once had 14,000 employees working simultaneously on one site. Today IBM in Scotland who are engaged in the large-scale production of personal computers believe their plant has reached an 'optimum' size with 3,000 workers. Under no circumstances, would they allow their plant to approach the dinosaur proportions of the now extinct Singer plant. The issues of organisation and productivity are closely linked. Group technology (GT) This is a technique which is well documented by the British academic, J L Burbidge in his article 'The Future for Batch Production', 1985. Instead of laying out the plant by department specialism, it is considered more sensible to group product families together in cells. The purpose of their grouping is to improve material flow and span of control. For instance, less set up time is needed between parts requiring similar processing. More use can also be made of shared facilities. Group technology has been around for some time - it was widely used by the Soviet Union during World War II to produce tanks. After the war, it was imported to Europe. However, as the literal translation of the Russian is 'family planning' (which has other meanings!) it was altered to group technology.


Related Discussions:- Focused factories - limited vertical integration

Calculate average waiting time, Nation -Wide Bus Lines (NWBS) conducts trai...

Nation -Wide Bus Lines (NWBS) conducts training classes for new drivers. The classroom can hold 35 students. As long as the class size is less than or equal to 35, the training pro

What is minimum pricing, Q. What is Minimum pricing? The minimum transf...

Q. What is Minimum pricing? The minimum transfer price an internal seller would accept will depend on whether it has spare capacity to utilise or not.    If spare capacity e

Calculate the growth-price-recovery, Hamadi Corporation manufactures an ele...

Hamadi Corporation manufactures an electronic component 'AZ-101'. This component is significantly different from its peer companies and has gained a high repute. The company presen

What is performance pyramid, Q. What is performance pyramid? The perfo...

Q. What is performance pyramid? The performance pyramid  Like the balanced scorecard or 6-dimensional performance matrix, the performance pyramid is a multidimensional mo

What is organizational design, 1.Middle managers are often at the center of...

1.Middle managers are often at the center of efforts to develop tactical plans to implement established strategies. How are tactical plans typically established? What challenges co

Procedural history - sample case briefing, Procedural History: The pl...

Procedural History: The plaintiff filed an action for negligence under Texas law  and  the trial  court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants.  All you are d

Sanlam, write an essay of approximately 1500 words in which you critically ...

write an essay of approximately 1500 words in which you critically analyse and evaluate the value innovation strategy that sanlam opted for in their 2009 blue star financial advise

Explain the factors that cause unsuccessful implementation, Question: S...

Question: Strategy implementation can be said to consist of securing resources, organizing these resources and directing the use of these resources within and outside the organ

Define strategic planning, QUESTION Firms often compete with each other...

QUESTION Firms often compete with each other to gain their customers' attention and business. While doing so, each firm tries to chalk out its unique strategy or gameplan. Stra

Contrasting strategic planning to strategic control, Contrasting strategic ...

Contrasting strategic planning to strategic control Strategic planning is a more centralised planning approach, senior management tend to focus less on implementing specific c

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd