"When electricity first arrived in factories, managers didn't redesign their buildings. They simply replaced the central steam engine with an electric motor and kept the system of belts, pulleys, and shafts that distributed power throughout the facility. The result was marginal improvement at best. It took decades for manufacturers to realize that electricity's true potential required tearing down the old multi-story factories (built tall to accommodate gravity-fed power distribution) and building single-story plants where machines could be placed wherever the work demanded."
"When electricity first arrived in factories, managers didn't redesign their buildings. They simply replaced the central steam engine with an electric motor and kept the system of belts, pulleys, and shafts that distributed power throughout the facility. The result was marginal improvement at best. It took decades for manufacturers to realize that electricity's true potential required tearing down the old multi-story factories (built tall to accommodate gravity-fed power distribution) and building single-story plants where machines could be placed wherever the work demanded."
When electricity first arrived in factories, managers installed electric motors in place of central steam engines while keeping belt, pulley, and shaft distribution systems. Those substitutions yielded only marginal improvements because buildings remained tall and organized for gravity-fed, centralized power. Real gains required rethinking plant architecture: demolishing multi-story factories designed for vertical power transfer and constructing single-story plants. Single-story layouts allowed machines to be positioned according to workflow rather than fixed power lines. The shift from component replacement to systemic redesign took decades but unlocked electricity's substantial productivity potential.
Read at Harvard Business Review
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]