New organization concepts for distributed production systems

Abstract

The organization of production processes is becoming increasingly complex. Begins with some observations of non‐linear dynamic effects and uncontrolled self‐organization in production, which back this statement. This leads to the demand for organization forms in which distributed decision making plays a crucial role. Against this background, however, a new conception of planning and control is necessary. The main question is how an overall corporate objective can be achieved, while the sub‐systems pursue their individual objectives and can only be controlled in a limited manner. The application of recent research results from systems theory can help in understanding the problem and concepts like interventionist and experimental planning are powerful expedients to describe the remaining rules of planning and control specialists. With regard to the decision‐making processes on the shopfloor, suggests a reliance on the laws of the market, which therefore have to be transferred to production systems.

Citation

Ahrens, V. (1996), "New organization concepts for distributed production systems", Kybernetes, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 24-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684929610114628