The Re-Emergence of Craftsmanship
Before the second industrial revolution (refer to the section entitled The Second Industrial Revolution, in Chapter 2, The Industrial Revolutions), most products were created in manufactories by craftsmen. Productivity was low, but the production process was flexible and individual. The second industrial revolution changed the industrial landscape from craftsmanship to effective, but inflexible, mass production.
The era of mass production survived the third industrial revolution. Nowadays, we can observe a change. Markets are again requesting flexibility, creativity, and individualism. Gerhard Wohland refers to the overall pattern of organizational complexity along a timeline as the Taylor tube (Gerhard Wohland, Judith Huther-Fries, Matthias Wiemeyer, Dr. Jörg Wilmes. Vom Wissen zum Können – Merkmale dynamikrobuster Höchstleistung. DETECON. 2004). Figure 3.8 shows the origin of the name Taylor tube: