Section 1

When Henry Ford proudly looked at the assembly-line winding its way on the shop-floor like a noisy car-vomiting snake, little would he have imagined that ,soon this snake is going to be one of the most endangered species of its kind. The false economies in mass production and in huge inventories have been unceremoniously cast away today in this customer – pampering competitive market. Buzz-words like Right-sizing, Down-sizing, Rationalisation, Golden Hand-shake have been welcomed by businesses while referring to the sheer number of employees. Manufacturing strategies such as "Flexible Manufacturing systems", "Computer Integrated Manufacturing", "Enterprise-wide Resource planning" are making the rounds of the shop-floors today.

If this is the present , what is the scenario going to be in the foreseeable future ?

The future most definitely is going to be full of challenges, and businesses are going to be guided by continuous change on an uncertain & unclear path.

"World was never certain, will never be certain, only this……is certain".  

The future business scenario would be marked by the below mentioned features :

• Rapid changes in Technology

• Transnational suppliers and customers

• Fierce competition

• Innovation for survival.

• World-class Quality –demand of customer.

• Mergers, Takeovers and Acquisitions.

• High product differentiation achieved by very low manufacturing costs.

• Extremely short lifecycles of products/services.

• Quicker response to market.

How the Organisation responds to the tremendous demands made by the market would be the key? The whole Organisation structure would need to be more organic than ever before to be able to survive and remain World-class. The stringent and ever increasing demands of the discerning customer would mean that organisations respond to the demands of the market before the competitor does . The structure would have to be lean enough to create synergy and dynamism for disseminating communication quickly across all levels.On the other hand the organisation would require highly competent individuals who take the process of innovation and knowledge-enhancement seriously. 

The business scenario would impact the Organsiation structure and on its Manpower Resources in the following way :

ORGANISATION OF THE FUTURE

Impact on Structure

• Work groups

• Emphasis on joint decision-making

Impact on Climate

• Synergy
• Teamwork
• Stress on continuous Innovation
• Cross-Cultural workforce
• Quick Vertical, horizontal & diagonal communication

Impact on Manpower

• High on knowledge

• High on Commitment

• High on need to upgrade one’s Skills