Four Principles of Production

There are four such principles of production known to us so far. Each has been worked out for industrial production, that is, largely for traditional manual work. But each is equally applicable to producing and handling information, that is, to most clerical work. The principles are applicable also to knowledge work, at least to knowledge work concerned with the learning of known knowledge (i.e., already available and learnable) and its application.

The four systems are: (1) unique-product production; (2) rigid mass production; (3) flexible mass production; and (4) process or "flow" production. Each of these four has its own specifications; each makes specific demands on management.

(Drucker, 1974, p. 203)