TQM、Reengineering、Flexible Manufacturing Systems.docx

TQM、Reengineering、Flexible Manufacturing SystemsTechnology is changing people’s job and their work behavior. TQM and its emphasis on continuous improvement can increase employee stress as individuals find that performance expectations are constantly being increased.Reengineering is eliminating millions of jobs and completely reshaping the jobs of those who remain.Flexible manufacturing systems require employees to learn new skills and accept increased responsibilities.And technology is making many job skills obsolete and shortening the life span of almost all skills—technical, administrative, and managerial.Technology is how an organization transfers its inputs into outputs.The common theme among new technologies in the workplace is that they substitute machinery for human labor in transforming inputs into outputs.Four specific issues related to technology and work:Total quality management = TQMContinuous improvement processesFlexible manufacturing systemsWorker obsolescenceFlexible Manufacturing SystemsThe unique characteristic of flexible manufacturing systems is that by integrating computer-aided design, engineering, and manufacturing, they can produce low-volume products for customers at a cost comparable to what had been previously possible only through mass production. (To produce low-volume products at mass production cost)Flexible manufacturing systems are, in effect, repealing the laws of economies of scale. Management no longer has to mass produce thousands of identical products to achieve low per-unit production costs. With flexible manufacturing, when management wants to produce a new part, it doesn’t change machines—it just changes the computer program.What do flexible manufacturing systems mean for people who have to work within them?They require a different breed of industrial employee.Workers in flexible manufacturing plants need more training and higher skills. This is because there are a fewer employees, so each has to be able to do a greater vari