The Works Organisation

Abstract

Any organisation, but particularly a manufacturing organisation, has as its principal aim the profitable conversion of materials or inputs into saleable products or services. The nature of this conversion process or how it is organised requires examination. After all, while other parts of the business, such as marketing, design and accounts, are clearly important, it is when materials are being converted in some way that profit should be being made. Furthermore, this profit’s size and rate depends very much upon the effectiveness of the works organisation. What causes one set-up to be better than another probably depends upon the right interaction between economic, technical and social forces — not forgetting the old foe change and how we respond to it. Some aspects of these three forces will receive fuller treatment in the other books in this series. For reference, all the more important subject areas, which will be touched on, are listed below under the main headings:

• Economic

  • 1. Cost standards for materials, labour and plant.

  • 2. Budgets for departmental expenditure.

  • 3. Inventory control.

  • 4. The efficiency of the conversion process.

  • 5. Delivery performances.

  • 6. Wage-payment systems.

  • 7. Control systems.

• Technical

  • 1. Type of buildings and manufacturing facilities.

  • 2. Arrangement of manufacturing facilities.

  • 3. Production method, i.e. jobbing, batch, mass or process.

  • 4. Manufacturing services, i.e. production planning and control, tooling, maintenance, inspection, materials movement, receiving stores and dispatch.

  • 5. Technical standards.

• Social

  • 1. Organisation structure.

  • 2. Works objectives.

  • 3. Job descriptions.

  • 4. Personnel policies.

  • 5. Industrial relations.

  • 6. Safety policies.

  • 7. Absenteeism and labour turnover.

  • 8. Effectiveness with which the human resources are being used.