On the Metaphysics of Production

Lauri Koskela¹ & Mike Kagioglou²

Abstract

Sincethepre-Socratic periodofphilosophy,therehavebeentwobasicmetaphysical views.Oneholds that there are substances or things, that is, atemporal entities in the world. The other insists that there are processes, that is, intrinsically temporal phenomena. These metaphysical assumptions tend to strongly influence how the subject of the inquiry or action isconceptualized.Thething-oriented viewseemstoleadtoanalyticaldecomposition,therequirement or assumption of certainty and an ahistorical approach. The process-oriented view is related to a holistic orientation, acknowledgement of uncertainty and to a historical and contextual approach. It can be argued that production is intrinsically a process oriented endeavour. However, an analysis of current conceptualizations and methods shows that it is the thing-oriented view on the world that has dominated the research and practice of production management. The resulting mismatch between the assumed nature and true nature of production has arguably led to major generic failures of production management. As a conclusion, it is contended that the discipline of production management has to seriously address the metaphysical issues confronting both practitioners and scholars.

Keywords

Metaphysics, Production, Substance, Process

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Reference

Koskela, L. & Kagioglou, M. 2005. On the Metaphysics of Production, 13th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 37-45. doi.org/

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