Let's quit trying to copy Japan: breaking free from FADS

Abstract

Western manufacturing industry must quit running their industry based on FADS. As good ideas come and go in manufacturing we must apply these good principles and use them as building blocks toward improvement. We must quit discarding old fads as new ones appear. Playing the fad game is just copying someone else's successes without looking at the context in which the success occurred. And we must remember that as long as we are trying to play catch up, the best we can do is get caught up.

Notes

GERHARD PLENERT, PhD, CPIM, spent 15 years working in management in private industry. His specialty was in MIS (Management Information Systems) and POM (Production/Operations Management). He travelled throughout the world in this capacity, and recently returned to school to earn his PhD at the Colorado School of Mines. He has spent the past 4 years teaching and researching at California State University, Chico. He joined Brigham Young University in the Institute of Business Management and was the Director of the California Productivity and Quality Center at CSUC and is now the director of the Productivity and Quality Research Group at BYU. His research specialty is in International Industrial Management with an emphasis on Developing Countries. He recently published a book titled International Management and Production—Survival Techniques for Corporate America.