Manufacturing Flexibility.

This article reports on a study of computerized factories in North America. The author, of Harvard Business School, focused on 60 plants in the fine-paper industry. His study concluded that computerization has made factories more rigid, and that a correlation exists between the level of computerization and the flexibility of the plant to shift from one product to another or to produce a range of products. The research indicates that flexibility is influenced by factors such as workers and their industry experience.