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From Filing and Fitting to Flexible Manufacturing: A Study in the Evolution of Process Control
Author(s): Ramchandran Jaikumar
Source:
Journal:Foundations and Trends® in Technology, Information and Operations Management
ISSN Print:1571-9545, ISSN Online:1571-9533
Publisher:Now Publishers
Volume 1 Number 1,
Document Type: Article
Pages: 120(1-120)
DOI: 10.1516/0200000001
Abstract: A well-known but previously unpublished monograph by Ramchandran Jaikumar (1945–1998)
on the nature and history of manufacturing. The development of mass manufacturing ranks as one
of the most important contributions to human living conditions ever – of the same magnitude
as agriculture and modern medicine. This monograph examines the development of manufacturing over
several centuries, through the eyes of a single industry and company. Throughout this period,
the key has been precise control of manufacturing processes, rather than production speed per se.
There have been six revolutionary transformations in manufacturing, each involving a shift in hard
technology, the nature of human work, and the nature of process control. Each epochal change was
a step in the evolution of manufacturing from art to science. Each required a different ethos
of process control and forced a new system of manufacture. Machines, the nature of work, and
the nature of the organization all had to change in concert.
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