Forcing the Factory of the Future Cybernation and Societal Institutions [Hardcover]

A comparative analysis of the impact of automation and computerisation on the metalworking industry.This study of the pursuit of the 'automatic factory' focusses on the key industry of metalworking in Britain, Italy, Japan and the USA. It unveils a recurring historical conflict between two logics of factory management and organisation: workshop principles and principles of a standardised factory. Case studies of 'Flexible Manufacturing Systems' in these four countries and their socio-political contexts show national variations and tensions between factory and workshop principles continuing into the age of computerisation.This study of the pursuit of the 'automatic factory' focusses on the key industry of metalworking in Britain, Italy, Japan and the USA. It unveils a recurring historical conflict between two logics of factory management and organisation: workshop principles and principles of a standardised factory. Case studies of 'Flexible Manufacturing Systems' in these four countries and their socio-political contexts show national variations and tensions between factory and workshop principles continuing into the age of computerisation.This study of the pursuit of the automatic factory focuses on the key industry of metalworking in Britain, Italy, Japan and the United States. It unveils a recurring historical conflict between two logics of factory management and organization: workshop principles and principles of a standardized factory. Case studies of Flexible Manufacturing Systems in these four countries and their sociopolitical contexts show national variations and tensions between factory and workshop principles continuing into the age of computerization.Part I. The Workshop Versus the Factory: 1. Introduction: explaining factory evolution; 2. Past production paradigms: the workshop, Taylorism and Fordism; 3. Productivity for prosperity: industrial renewal and Cold War politics; Part II. Technologies of Control: 4. Technological evolution and the patholol“.