World Class Manufacturing:

World-class manufacturing (WCM) is a generic term that, according to a 1988 publication, refers to “being better than almost every other company in your industry in at least one important aspect of manufacturing.” First published use of the term appears to be a 1985 Harvard Business Review article, “Competing Through Manufacturing,” which proposed a four-stage framework of how a manufacturer can advance from a low Stage 1 level of competitiveness to the highest Stage 4 level, that stage being referred to as world class manufacturing. However, the article used that term only once.
The term, though, had cachet and was carried forward in further publications: Several books with world-class manufacturing in their titles have been published and numerous articles (e.g.,) have been written on WCM's concepts, application contexts, and competitive impacts.
As for companies that have adopted the WCM term, one stands out: Italian automaker Fiat, which launched its version of World Class Manufacturing in 2006. An Internet-available PowerPoint presentation, developed for Fiat’s investors, explained its WCM “roadmap.” Elsewhere in the presentation was the statement that 44,000 WCM projects had been completed, and with numerous examples and quantitative results. The Chrysler Group adopted Fiat’s WCM when Fiat acquired Chrysler in 2009. (Fiat and Chrysler merged in 2014 to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA.)
Concept
Concepts do not fall out easily or consistently from the published works on WCM. They mostly lack reference to WCM as a set of principles, or a system; and “how-to” methodologies are usually scattered in the texts rather than in a concise compendia. The FCA version of WCM includes ten technical pillars (e.g., safety, cost deployment, focused improvement) and ten managerial pillars (management commitment, clarity of objectives, etc.). However, as to “how,” there is much to say about rigorous training, monitoring, measurement, and responsiveness to weak numbers; but specific transformational methods are not discussed in the sources cited herein.
The WCM books and articles (see Further Reading) cited in this article generally do include—in their titles, tables of contents, listing in the texts, or indexed—such topics, concepts, or methodologies as: Just-in-time production, kanban, cellular manufacturing, lead-time reduction, quick setup, cross-training and job rotation, supplier partnership, and total quality control (TQC) or total quality (TQ). However, these same topics, and related ones, are found in numerous books (for example,) that have titles and vocabularies other than world-class manufacturing. In other words, many publications could be considered as advancing the cause of world-class manufacturing, even those they do not make use of the term itself. WCM, being a generic term without the specificity of a company’s system, or a set of principles, can reasonably go by other names.
History
In its early history, WCM tended to borrow concepts that were developed or fine-tuned in Japan, particularly just-in-time production, cellular manufacturing, kanban, quick setup, total productive maintenance, and 5S. Later, with the advent of lean manufacturing, some of the books and articles with WCM in their titles began to add verbiage relative to lean and Six Sigma.
Also, following the earliest publications on WCM, a few books and numerous articles were written on specific aspects and contexts for application of WCM.
WCM, though not a common publication topic in developed countries, still has a presence there, including in training contexts. More diverse contexts of WCM, including conferences on the topic, are found in developing countries.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu