Mass Production
A business system developed early in the 20th century to organize and manage product development, production operations, purchasing, and customer relations. Typically:
- The design process is sequential rather than simultaneous.
- The production process has a rigid hierarchy with jobs divided into thinking/planning and doing.
- The product is taken to the process rather than the reverse.
- Suppliers work-to-print after selection through bids for piece prices rather than total cost to the customer.
- Materials are delivered infrequently in large batches.
- Information is managed through high-level systems instructing each production step what to do next and pushing products downstream.
- Customers often are subject to push selling to meet quotas and clear inventories produced to erroneous forecasts.