Productivity Breakthroughs in Manufacturing Today
             In fulfilling the requirements to complete a book review for the class Manufacturing Resource Planning, I have chose to review the book "Reinventing the Factory". The book covers and implements theories of productivity improvements and breakthroughs. The authors, Harmon and Peterson, take the book beyond theory and use hundreds of examples of real-life productivity improvements. A list of these impressive examples can be found in the appendix as proof. The authors show how manufacturers can dramatically increase productivity through refinery of the sub plants, or plants within the plant, and the overall plant wide plan. The book is sectioned into three main portions. The authors lumped sections of the book together for easier reviewing and reference. The first three chapters cover topics of importance for executive managers. The next portion of the book, chapters 4 through 7, focuses towards individuals who are responsible for the different departments of the manufacturing organization. The last three chapters are aimed towards all individuals in the organization. They affect several areas of the operation and are more general in nature than the more specific preceding chapters of the book.
             Chapters 1 through 3 as mentioned earlier, are aimed more toward executive managers, and focus on a plant wide plan and increasing production efficiency. The first chapter is titled the "Management Perspective". Its focus is simple reorganization of people and equipment, targeting how to set goals for improving productivity and increasing profit. Comparing your productivity to manufacturers not only in the United States, but around the globe is a measurement the authors emphasize that managers should take into perspective. But benchmarking shouldn't be overemphasized as it will lead to delay on factory improvements. This leads into the main portion of t...