Unique-Product Production

What is unique in unique-product production is the product. In fact, unique-product production is always organized around standardized tools and it typically works with standardized materials.

In unique-product production the basic organization is by homogeneous stages. In the building of the traditional single-family house—one of the oldest examples of unique-product production—we can distinguish four such stages. First, digging the foundation and pouring concrete for the foundation walls and the basement floor. Second, erecting frame and roof. Third, installing plumbing and wiring equipment in the walls. Finally, interior finishing. What makes each of these a distinct stage is that work on the house can stop after each is completed, without any damage—even for a fairly long time. On the other hand, within each stage, work has to be carried right through; or else what has been done already will be damaged and may even have to be done again. Each stage can be varied from house to house without too much trouble or adjustment and without delaying the next stage. Each of these stages by the inner logic of the product—that is, the house—is an entity in itself.

This is largely how the U.S. succeeded in building ships at such a tremendous rate during World War II. It was not mass production that resulted in the unprecedented output of ships. It was the division of the work into homogeneous stages; the systematic organization of the work group for the specific requirements of each stage; and the systematic training of a large number of people to do all the work required within one stage. This in turn made possible the progressive scheduling of the work flow, which was the greatest timesaver.

(Drucker, 1974, pp. 205-206)