Revisiting the spheres of manufacture, project and coordination

• Main Authors: Gouvea da Costa, S.E., Pinheiro de Lima, E., Gouvea da Costa, C.C.E.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fitting; Joining materials; Manufacturing automation; Manufacturing processes; Production; Project management; Pulp manufacturing; Raw materials; Resource management; Virtual manufacturing
• DOI: 10.1109/IEMC.1998.727746

One of the classical ways to manage the integration of the activities in an organization is the Kaplinsky proposition, which defines the spheres of manufacture, production and project. The sphere of project joins together the activities in which the nature of the outcoming of the organization (products) is defined and new production processes are explored; the manufacture sphere comprises the activities which compound the manufacturing process itself, that is, when the raw material and other material resources are processed and stored, producing the final product to the consumer; the coordination sphere comprises the activities of the organization management. The level of the organization automation can be measured by means of the inter-sphere and intra-sphere automation level. However, due to the technological and organizational development that happened soon after such proposition was stated, new patterns of production and new methodologies and work-tools are now available. This paper gives a new reading of the spheres of Kaplinsky, fitting the concepts of the spheres of manufacture, project and coordination, also the concepts of automation, intra-activity, intra-spheres and inter-spheres to the resources available today. The potential of manufacturing in the organization strategy, the reduction of the product development cycle and the capacity of learning are pointed out in this new model.