Productivity: How to Organize the Management and How to Manage the Organization

Abstract

Thanks to an accident in timing, the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) facilitated access to an extraordinary organization before, during, and after the 1973 Oil Shock served notice that individual shipyards as well as entire shipbuilding industries had to be reformed. In Japan, the decade before was referred to as "The Golden Age of Shipbuilding." The reference was made not just because of the great and unprecedented peacetime shipbuilding market that had existed. It was also made to acknowledge the extremely effective management practices that evolved while building ship after ship without interruption from the late fifties through the early seventies. A more appropriate name is "The Golden Age of Shipyard Management Development." This paper reviews both the basic and condensed production organization of a Japanese shipyard, examines management accounting practices, and discusses the versatility and significance of a product work breakdown approach.