Overview

Most companies in the late 1990s were focused on keeping up with market demands. They were also exploring the possibilities created by the explosion of information and telecommunications technologies, particularly the Internet. These technologies enabled entirely new ways to communicate with customers and suppliers, and facilitated internal communications as well. The 1990s marked the decade when everybody was developing new initiatives in B2C (business-to-consumer) communications and B2B (business-to-business) supply chains, installing ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, and worrying about Y2K. The threat posed to the U.S. economy by Japan and Germany had eased, the stock market was rising rapidly, and everybody was pursuing dot-com start-ups.

In this climate, traditional plant operations were often relegated to a secondary concern. There were just too many new things to think about and explore; everybody's attention was focused on "breakthrough improvements." Therefore, the mandate for routine plant operations became "just keep up with business while we pursue the pot of gold."

In the first decade of the 2000s, the economic bubble burst. Easy money was gone and managers now worry about how to stay competitive in the new world-wide economy that has emerged. It is time, once again, for companies to concentrate on their core businesses, squeeze out the waste (lean concepts), and differentiate themselves from their competitors in meaningful ways. But the tools available to companies and the challenges facing them are now so much greater than before that managers have to evaluate many of the basic principles of good plant operations that they...