Manufacturing excellence for 21st century production

Abstract

A new concept, ‘Manufacturing excellence’, is presented to enhance the suitability of tangible goods production for pursuing human happiness and world peace, whilst eliminating the earth-destructive activity caused by conventional mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal which wastes enormous amounts of valuable natural resources. Several approaches to manufacturing excellence -CIM-led factory automation, human-centred flexible manufacture, production for customer satisfaction, green production for environmental elegance, high added-value production, etc.-are discussed. Finally, socially appropriate manufacturing is proposed as a production perspective for the 21st century.