Then and now – 50 years of production research

Abstract

This paper is based on the author’s experience of three different firms 50 years ago, around the time when The International Journal of Production Research began publication. It describes the issues and challenges that these firms faced in planning and managing production or distribution, and the approaches and recommendations that were made at the time for addressing these issues. Next the question is asked: how, 50 years later, would the same situation be addressed? Asking this question enables an assessment of the contribution of production research to understanding issues, developing solution approaches, and helping production managers.

Keywords:

• inventory management
• production organisation
• production control
• aggregate planning
• investment planning

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Norman Dudley and Nigel Corlett to establishing IJPR. Some portions of this paper are based on a talk given at the Chinese University of Hong Kong some years ago. I would like to thank Professor Janny Leung for providing me with the opportunity to think about the relevance of my early experiences in production.