History of Production Management:

History of production management may be divided into six parts, viz. the industrial revolution, the post-civil war period, scientific management, human relations behavioralism, operations research, and the service revolution.

The Industrial Revolution

The existence of production systems may be thought to be very old. Be it Egyptian pyramids, Greek Parthenon, the Great Wall of China, they all are the outcomes of the processes of industries and therefore the production systems of ancient times. Before 1700s, these production systems were known as cottage systems. Industrial revolution that occurred in England in 1700s is concerned with the series of developments involving two principal elements viz. the substitution of machine power for human and water power and establishments of factory systems. In the year of 1774, James Watt invented the steam engine providing machine power to these factories. Later in the year of 1776, Adam Smith published "The Wealth of Nations" and proposed the economic benefits of specializations of labour thus breaking the production into small specialized tasks. In the year 1970, Eli Whitney, an American inventor developed the concept of interchangeable parts. The cottage industry was replaced by factory system fully only by the middle 1800s.