Production and Operations Management · 2001 · 111 citations · 4 references
Social SciencesHistoryOperations ManagementEconomic HistoryIndustrial OrganizationLabor HistoryBusiness HistoryIndustrial RevolutionIndustrializationManufacturing StrategyManufacturing TechnologyProduction TheoryIndustrialization HistoryProductivityTechnological Change In Industry
Manufacturing history is too often neglected in operations management and its lessons lost. Its usefulness for testing theory is under‐appreciated. This paper uses critical aspects of the history of manufacturing to provide support for the Theory of Swift, Even Flow as an explanation of productivity gain. The rise of Britain in the Industrial Revolution and the rapid overtaking of Britain by the United States and Germany are argued to be thoroughly consistent with Swift, Even Flow, thereby vindicating both theory and the usefulness of history.
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