We've all heard someone say "we are moving towards a post-industrial model." By that they mean we're moving towards wirearchies, peer-to-peer models, mass collaboration models, networks, meshes, etc. Sure. Got it. They even have models to show what this new post-industrial production model looks like.
But what did that original industrial model look like? The factory / mass production model of controlled labor? Sure we all know the values that underly it: hierarchies, replication, control, division, homogeneity, linearity, streamlining, speed, efficiency. But what were its fundamental components? Just as a business model defines the fundamental components of what a business needs to establish itself and grow, the model of mass production should explicate the same thing. You'd think that'd be out there somewhere. And I'm sure it is. I just haven't found it. So I took a stab at it. Below is a draft of what I think that model of mass production would be. I'd appreciate your feedback and edits.
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1. Material / Capital Input
Because the mass production model is all about turning trees into toothpicks, there has to be raw material (as in natural resources or data) to transform and capital to pay for the production costs.
2. Output Schema
A blueprint of what is to be made must be determined prior to the coordination and commencement of labor and production.
3. Centralized Planning / Coordination
There is the expectation that those higher up the corporate food chain have the most experience and knowledge and know best in terms of producing products against that output schema. They plan what will happen to the material/capital input, how it will happen (coordination), and how long it will take to happen.
4. Division of Labor
A laborer that is focused on specific, narrowly defined tasks in the production process, so Adam smith said, becomes specialized and more efficient at that task. This improves efficiency throughout the production line. Therefore leadership divides the components of the schema, assigns specific people/divisions/outsourced companies to those tasks, and gives each of them goals/objectives.
5. Monitor (process / quality)
Because the centralized planners can't be on the factory floor, there must be a monitoring function installed so that information about the process is fed up the chain to those who make the decisions. Monitoring can be a person, as in a floor manager, it can be punch cards, it can be warehouse inventory, etc. Basically, anything that captures data and flows it to the centralized decision makers who want to fine tune the mass production process. Their goal is to measure the actual output and process against the idealized. If the two don't match up, the leadership tinkers with the output/process until it aligns with the idealized.
6. Assembler
Because the product is being produced in "pieces," it must be assembled before it can be shipped and sold. Therefore, any mass production process must have an "assembler." "Assembler" simply means the means by which something is made whole. For instance, book publishers have a assembler machine. It sends the text, paper, glue, and cover art to a printing apparatus that pieces it all together. In the case of a car factory, it has an assembler process. The car, in a nutshell, moves on a conveyor belt—an "assembly line"—while laborers add components to the car. When the car reaches then end of the line, it should be "completed."
7. Distribution Channel
You can't have all those products sit in a warehouse. Gotta get them to customers.
Anyway, that's a fast and dirty take on the mass production model. Please critique and help me make it better. What am I missing? What is nebulous? Better yet, if you know any academic or respected business mind whose made a more accurate model, let me know. I'll just use that.
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