When the pharmaceuticals giant Merck reports promising results for a potential "blockbuster" drug, the story makes the evening news. Now, at a time when new product development has become critical to success in so many industries, The Development Factory proves that process innovation - not just product innovation - can be the key to competitive edge. In this multiyear study of pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, Gary Pisano explores the dynamics of superior product and process development in a highly competitive industry that lives and dies by its R&D and depends heavily on rapid time to market. His work reveals that behind the success of many new product introductions lies the development of novel process technologies that provide lower costs, higher quality, and increased flexibility. Pisano challenges the widely held product-process life cycle view of competition, which suggests that industries tend to emphasize either product innovation or process innovation. He also questions the notion that there is a conflict between pursuit of product innovation and pursuit of lower costs, arguing that product development and process development capabilities are complementary. Extending the lessons to a wide variety of manufacturing industries, The Development Factory will guide companies toward unlocking the potential of process development and understanding the patterns of organizational behavior and managerial actions that help create and implement new capabilities over time.

"Freeman’s rich and ambitious Behemoth depicts a world in retreat that still looms large in the national imagination.…More than an economic history, or a chronicle of architectural feats and labor movements." —Jennifer Szalai, New York Times In an accessible and timely work of scholarship, celebrated historian Joshua B. Freeman tells the story of the factory and examines how it has reflected both our dreams and our nightmares of industrialization and social change. He whisks readers from the early textile mills that powered the Industrial Revolution to the factory towns of New England to today’s behemoths making sneakers, toys, and cellphones in China and Vietnam. Behemoth offers a piercing perspective on how factories have shaped our societies and the challenges we face now.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

This book provides an introduction to the history of the factory system and explores its impact on society and the economy. It highlights the key players involved in the development of the system and the challenges they faced. It is a great read for anyone interested in the history of industrialization. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book describes a vision of manufacturing in the twenty-first century that maximizes efficiencies and improvements by exploiting the full power of information and provides a research agenda for information technology and manufacturing that is necessary for success in achieving such a vision. Research on information technology to support product and process design, shop-floor operations, and flexible manufacturing is described. Roles for virtual manufacturing and the information infrastructure are also addressed. A final chapter is devoted to nontechnical research issues.

Technology and globalization are threatening manufacturing’s traditional ability to deliver both productivity and jobs at a large scale for unskilled workers. Concerns about widening inequality within and across countries are raising questions about whether interventions are needed and how effective they could be. Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development addresses three questions: - How has the global manufacturing landscape changed and why does this matter for development opportunities? - How are emerging trends in technology and globalization likely to shape the feasibility and desirability of manufacturing-led development in the future? - If low wages are going to be less important in defining competitiveness, how can less industrialized countries make the most of new opportunities that shifting technologies and globalization patterns may bring? The book examines the impacts of new technologies (i.e., the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, and advanced robotics), rising international competition, and increased servicification on manufacturing productivity and employment. The aim is to inform policy choices for countries currently producing and for those seeking to enter new manufacturing markets. Increased polarization is a risk, but the book analyzes ways to go beyond focusing on potential disruptions to position workers, firms, and locations for new opportunities. www.worldbank.org/futureofmanufacturing