Lecture The evolution of management thought (6th edition) - Chapter 21: Science and systems in management

The chapter traced the search for order through science and systems in management. Operations research was viewed as a modern version of early scientific approaches to problem solving. Interest in production quality and lean manufacturing became an international force that leveled the competitive playing field. The development of computers and microcircuitry led to new methods to assist managerial decision making.

THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT

THOUGHT, 6TH

EDITION

Electronic Resource by:

Regina Greenwood and Julia Teahen

Science and Systems in Management

Chapter Twenty One

Science and Systems in

Management

 Quest for Science in Management

 The Scientific Method

 Operations research

 Old Lessons Relearned

 Systems and Information

Quest for Science in

Management

Descartes, Babbage, and scientific management

Great Britain during World War II by P.M.S Blackett and others.

 “Blackett’s Circus” was

a team of specialists who could bring a variety of techniques

to apply to problems.

 Operations research applications after the war were primarily in the area of production management.

Frederick Taylor Revisited

 Used specialists in his metal-cutting

experiments, suggesting numerous parallels between

management science and scientific

management.

Production Management in

Transition

 Gordon and Howell’s 1959 remark “Production management courses are often the repository for some of the most inappropriate and intellectually stultifying materials to be found in the business curriculum…”

 Also, they recommended more mathematics for business school students.

 Production management and operations research merged into production/operations management.

Gantt Chart

Old Lessons Relearned

 Product quality was important historically – the hallmark concept allowed customers to connect quality with the maker of the firm (Carnegie)

 Some maintained that the U.S forgot how to complete which enabled the Japanese to use U.S experts such as W Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and others for statistical

quality control

 Wickham Skinner – incorporating

manufacturing into overall corporate

strategy

 Richard Schonberger – integrating the firm around a “chain of customers.”

Old Lessons Relearned

 Statistical quality control was pioneered

W Edwards Deming

Courtesy of the University of Western Ontario

Old Lessons Relearned

Lean Manufacturing

 Based on the Toyota

Production System

 Developed by Taiichi Ohno ,

assisted by Shigeo Shingo

 Incorporated process

improvement, zero defects,

just-in-time inventory

management, reducing

set-up and changeover times,

coordination with suppliers

of raw materials, and

keeping in touch with

suppliers and customers to

form a Lean enterprise

 Taiichi Ohno and

“just-in-time” planning for materials

delivery was influenced by

earlier work at Ford Motor

Company.

Lean Timeline Source: Stratgeos-International

Systems and Information

Ludwig von Bertalanffy,

was a Gestalt concept

The GST view was:

 Study of the whole

Norbert Weiner (1894-1964)

Cybernetics

 Developed cybernetics

 Cybernetics fits into GST by

providing feedback loops so systems could “learn.”

(strategic planning)

“The Faber-Castell 67/87 is a plastic 6-inch simplex pocket rule with the Reitz scale arrangement and extended, self-documenting scales It's a nice little rule, and that's before you discover its secret: flip it over, and there's a 6-digit addiator on the back!”

Computer Age to the Information Age Death to the Slide Rule

Source:

http://www.toddtolhurst.com/sliderules/fc67-87.html

Challenge: Can you imagine a world of work and a personal world without computers?

Computer Age to the Information Age

Computer Age to the Information Age

founded the firm

that became IBM;

his punch cards

Computer Age to the Information Age

Computer Age to the

Information Age

 Early computers were monsters, slow,

expensive, and with limited applicability This was the EDP stage of computer

evolution

 Computer technology evolved rapidly from vacuum tubes to microcircuitry

IBM1401 Source: http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/

Computer Age to the Information Age

 JoAnne Yates

noted that technological adoption, such as computers,

comes not with the invention or advancement but when managers see an

application for the new

technology.

JoAnne Yates Courtesy of Dr Yates

Computer Age to the Information Age

production/operations management,

such as Computer-Assisted-Design

(CAD).

replaced EDP for providing information

to management enabling

computer-assisted decision making technologies

 The chapter traced the search for order

through science and systems in

management

 Operations research was viewed as a

modern version of early scientific

approaches to problem solving

 Interest in production quality and lean

manufacturing became an international

force that leveled the competitive playing field

 The development of computers and

microcircuitry led to new methods to assist managerial decision making