Companies are run by zeros not heroes

This statement made by our POM Professor during our third lecture made me sit straight on the chair and listen carefully to the differences between Craftsmanship and Modern Management.

Craftsmanship	Modern Management
Craft production is the process of manufacturing by hand with or without the aid of tools. The term Craft production refers to a manufacturing technique applied in the hobbies of Handicraft but was also the common method of manufacture in the pre-industrialized world. For example, the production of pottery uses methods of craft production	Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. This concept came into picture after the Industrial Revolution.
Only one person is working on the entire process	Many people are working on the same process
Time required to complete the entire task is more	Time required to complete the task is less
Satisfaction gained after completion of work is high	Satisfaction gained after completion of work is low
The skill sets required is more and varied	The skill sets required is small and monotonous

Can craftsmanship survive in the age of mass production?

Pre-industrialized world:

There was a time when craftsmanship meant something and there are still a few small Mom and Pop operations that believe in the word to this day. Then enter the internet, the global market, the ability to "feed" the masses with whatever they desire and we quickly find that Mom and Pop can't keep up with the demand curve. Try as they might, burn long hours into the night, work weekends, hire inexperienced workers etc. usually ends with the first telltale sign arising as a lack of quality control and the ultimate erosion of their customer base. 

Industrial Revolution:

Then came a time when many of the products we bought were mass-produced in factories, sacrificing high-quality craftsmanship to save money.

The world now:

However, Mass production today means maximizing your product output (maximizing your return on investment) while preserving the quality you are known for. If you slip, the response is almost instantaneous with today's social networking and "connected" world. Words gets out at light-speed that something isn't right, not up to par, caution, and buyer beware and you are "toast" as they say.

Some companies appear committed to craftsmanship even while offering a mass-produced product for example Apple. These are the companies which are committed to EXCELLENCE. They display their ‘Love of Excellence’ through their products.

Excellence = Effectiveness X Efficiency

                                                                  (Direction)          (Speed)

Today, these 3 E’s form the basis of any manufacturing companies.

Lean Manufacturing:

Lean Manufacturing aims to combine the flexibility and quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production. Lean production was seen as the third step in an historical progression, which took industry from the age of the craftsman through the methods of mass production and into an era that combined the best of both. It has been described as “the most fundamental change to occur since mass production was brought to full development by Henry Ford early in the 20th century.”

In lean-production systems a manufacturer's employees are organized in teams. Within each team a worker is expected to be able to do all the tasks required of the team. These tasks are less narrowly specialized than those demanded of the worker in a mass-production system, and this variety enables the worker to escape from the soul-destroying repetition of the pure assembly line.

With lean production, components are delivered to each team's work station just-in-time, and every worker is encouraged to stop production when a fault is discovered. This is a critical distinction from the classic assembly-line process, where stoppages are expensive and to be avoided at all costs. Faulty products are put to one side to be dealt with later, and a large stock of spares is kept on hand so faulty components can be replaced immediately without causing hold-ups. With such a system, workers on the assembly line learn nothing and the faults persist. Thus, we can see that lean manufacturing is the way forward and the companies that incorporate it will be the ones that survive.