Synthetic, Pragmatic, Analytic - A Comparison of the Japanese, American and German Approaches to Machine Tool Design

Abstract

Good news! “Culture” is on the rise again! Whereas a mere decade ago computer integration, automation, and, in areas not (yet) to be automated, strictly supervised project management were praised as the formidable chance to reduce troublesome and error-prone human process interference to a negligible residual parameter and to advance into a bright future of opposition-free production and profit maximation, in the last few years the strict limitations of these approaches have, sometimes quite painfully, been demonstrated. Nowadays no serious discussion about the future of industries or the improvement of management practices can continue to neglect the “human factor” - neither in its individuality nor in work organization - or other culturally influenced parameters as the structural integration of the company, the historical tradition of the industry, or the social environment of the country.