The Design of the Factory with a Future

I hear the same comments by people who have attended manufacturing conferences and symposiums in the hope of attaining information useful to making decisions: each groups glorifys their 'new' idea of JIT, zero inventory or cellular manufacturing and adds to the neverending flow of ideas. For someone trying to apply this information the different ideas can seem as numerous as the waves on a beach, neverending and tough to tell one from another. JT Black's wonderful book brings many of those ideas together, defines them and compares them, concepts such as Just-in-time, Zero-Inventory and Minimal-inventory. The history of their development and successful applications are also described. The stages of development for a factory with a future are laid out in ten simple steps. This information can be used to build a plant or to examine where your plant is in the evolutionary process. I picked this book up while browsing a library and have found it to be the 'hidden treasure' as an everday tool. Many ideas and concepts are put into words, things that any person running a factory or making factory-level decisions knows but have never seen in print. Seeing a concept, such a simple definition of quality, makes that concept a more useful tool. I see this book as part of my tool package and can advise it for all, except my competition.