Wanted: Managers for the Factory of the Future

An obstacle to progress toward major technological change in American industry centers around the industrial manager and prevalent managerial processes. New technology promises a factory of the future with radically better and more challenging jobs and work environments but, in spite of these and major strategic advantages, the rate of investment and change is slow. Case research suggests that decisions to redesign and reequip factories with available new equipment are delayed by detail-centered, cautious managers enmeshed in typical corporate decision-making that focuses on finance rather than strategy. The investment costs and risks in new factory technology are substantially greater than present technology, augmented by the need for closely integrated equipment and information systems. Hence the start-up and debugging problems are formidable, the outcomes are nearly unpredictable, and the behavior of managers unwilling to assume such career risks is therefore altogether rational. This set of factors has outdated not only many present corporate investment decision-making processes but a heretofore successful generation of top industrial managers.