Rapid progress in manufacturing

To make rapid progress in manufacturing business processes have to be rigorously designed by teams of people with a passion for how they will operate. Businesses are dependent on operating systems, but many companies have never designed the fundamental business processes defining how the company will perform the various tasks. This paper examines the structure of manufacturing companies and outlines the fundamental business processes needed to make them operate effectively. At a conceptual level, considerable similarities exist in the core processes required to manage businesses and differences are a function of specific business activities linked to the tasks that have to be performed. The basic message of this paper is that, to make rapid progress in manufacturing, process must be designed. This is a demanding management task impacting the way people work together throughout an organization, but a company without an operating system, like a computer, has little chance of producing the required results. If competitors have designed and implemented cost-effective processes why should a particular business be expected to be successful using traditional methods developed by custom and practice?