Product Description: Much is stated and written about the new world of work, but how much do we know about the contemporary workplace? What influence have Japanese management techniques had on the way work is organized? Have the systems and mechanisms of control changed radically in recent years, or are they much the same as they have always been? Rick Delbridge sought an answer to these questions at first hand by working on the shop floor in a Japanese consumer electronics transplant and a European automotive components supplier in order to witness and experience life on the line in contemporary manufacturing...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

The future of British manufacturing is of immense importance and topicality. As we slide towards a service sector economy based on finance and tourism, it is worth reflecting on whether this is the most appropriate or inevitable scenario. Manufacturing in Transition makes a genuinely interdisciplinary contribution to the debate over the UK's strategy for industrial renewal. Aimed primarily at business, economics and industrial relations students, it looks at the current state of British manufacturing sector within the global economy and asks whether manufacturing matters in the twenty first century. The books explores key issues such as: the chances of renewal * developments in the management and organisation of operations and supply chains * the differences made by Japanese methods This is a timely assessment of the UK's industrial development and makes a major contribution to debates over the industrial strategy and the position of manufacturing within industrialized economies.