The '90s In Review - New Trends Aren't So New

Throughout the 1990s, corporate downsizing (no, not "rightsizing") continued to spread fear among in-plants that had traditionally justified themselves based on factors like confidentiality and control, rather than cost savings. Increased efforts by outsourcing firms forced in-plants to track their costs and keep an eye on waste—in short, to run their shops like businesses. Thus, computer management systems increasingly began to replace pegboard scheduling methods, and in-plants began to focus more attention on marketing their services to customers.