Organisations are introducing new types of operation, such
as just-in-time, lean operations, time compression, flexible
manufacturing, mass customisation, virtual operations, and
so on.
• Some organisations are turning from a product focus
(where they concentrate on the end products) to a process
focus (where they concentrate on the way products are
made). This encourages improvement to operations,
including logistics.
• There have been considerable improvements in
communication. These allow electronic data interchange
(EDI), item coding, electronic fund transfer (EFT), ecommerce,
shared knowledge systems, and other new
practices.