Title :
A Question of Scale: Networks, Systems, and Practice
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Abstract :
What does the Ford mass-production story have to do with the history of computing? Everything. More than half a century before Toyota´s just-in-time inventory captured hearts and minds around the industrial world, Ford was using state-of-the-art information technology to implement a system of networked manufacturing. Historians of computing should continue to produce work about work, particularly work in the predigital age. Practice matters.
Keywords :
automobiles; inventory management; just-in-time; production engineering computing; Ford network; information technology; inventory; just-in-time; network manufacturing; state-of-the-art; Companies; History; Mass production; Presses; Production facilities; Ford; History of computing; mass production; systems management;
Journal_Title :
Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MAHC.2010.56
