The traditional view of how industrial companies are built up and structured is currently being reworked. The notable trends: internationalisation, developments in information technology and more and more dynamic markets, lead to a situation in which the usual principles of management, which originated in a time with mass production and stable markets, may turn out no longer to be adequate.
The background for this development is complex but important factors are ever more open markets, falling transport costs, and finally the possibilities which information- and communications technologies, ICT, offers for communication between companies irrespective of geographical position.
Research groups all over the world have analysed these developments and have made a number of suggestions as to how the structure and management of industrial companies will change. A general consensus on the most important changes seems to be appearing, and many researchers are of the opinion that we are about to experience a change in the paradigm governing industrial production. The researchers who introduced the concept of agile manufacturing have outlined the main characteristics of the industrial company of the future as follows:
- Companies focus on creating solutions for the individual customer. Attempts are made to incorporate services in connection with the delivery of a physical product. The aim is to achieve a lifelong connection to the customer. Mass production of uniform products is replaced by solutions designed specifically for a particular customer, where one combines the economic advantages of mass production with the individualisation which can be achieved by using flexible production systems. There is a focus on continually analysing and understanding the needs of the customers.
- Sales, development and manufacture of products and services take place in networks composed of a number of different companies. It is here important to be able to identify future project partners and establish the framework for collaboration. This includes models for sharing earnings and risks between the individual companies.
- Companies are to an increasing extent becoming knowledge based. The individual employee’s knowledge and competence becomes a critical factor for the company’s ability to develop and manufacture products. An important aspect of this is the possibilities offered by information technology through modelling of knowledge and information. By building up such models, knowledge is made explicit and can therefore more easily be shared with others, both internally and in other companies.
- Companies must be able to adapt and handle unforeseeable changes. Employees must be able to adapt themselves to changing tasks and be able to collaborate with people with different technical backgrounds and coming from different cultures. The principle of top-down management is made less dominant, and the individual employee receives greater freedom and thus greater responsibility whereby an understanding of organisational processes, norms and culture is central.
For Danish industry it is essential to understand the ongoing development and to be able to make the necessary changes to companies’ structure, processes, and composition. There is a considerable research challenge in analysing these developments and their implications for companies, and building up operational methods and procedures, adapted to Danish conditions, for performing this transformation.