The Principles of Production

Production is not the application of tools to materials. It is the application of logic to work. The more clearly, the more consistently, the more rationally the right logic is applied, the less of a limitation and the more of an opportunity production becomes.

This definition implies that there must be principles of production. There must be a small number of basic models, each with its own constraints, its own requirements, its own characteristics. The definition further implies that the more closely a process of production can be designed according to one of these principles, the smoother, the more effective, and the more productive it will be.

(Drucker, 1974, p. 203)