MUDDLE INCORPORATED: The Demise of Hi-Tech Manufacturing in America?

by James Ignizio

Marvin Muddle is the bumbling, indecisive CEO of the company that bears his surname. The future of the Muddle Corporation is very much in doubt despite the fact that it once was a world leader in the manufacture of a certain hi-tech product. While Marvin and his Management Review Committee search for a “cheap, quick, and easy” solution to problems that have resulted from decades of rotten decisions, the firm’s performance – and employee morale – sink ever lower. At the moment, Marvin Muddle’s proposed solution is that of cost-cutting, outsourcing to overseas facilities, crafting a new mission statement, and – in particular – the development of a new logo.The perky and persuasive Sally Swindel, a management consultant, claims to have the the implementation of the latest, greatest management fad. All it will take, Sally promises, is the presentation of a weeklong short course, a long-term consulting contract, and the purchase of copies of her firm’s most recent management best seller. That book is the latest in a long list of her firm’s previous best sellers, including those dedicated to reengineering, one-minute management, total quality control, quality circles, management by objectives, management by walking around, management by positive thinking, management by the Ouija board, management practices of Hannibal Lecter, management via blind faith, management by intimidation, theories A through Z, and a host of other celebrated concepts.This might be amusing if it weren’t for the fact that there is, in this nation, far too many “Muddle-like” firms, and far too much Muddled Management. As a consequence, the leading role the U.S. once held in such areas as space exploration, military weapon systems and – in particular – high tech manufacturing, is in serious decline. As just one example, the Intel Corporation is now the sole remaining U.S. company capable of the fabrication of high-density, high-performance computer chips – a technology that was invented in this nation. As our nation’s capability to produce these computer chips and a host of other high technology products diminishes, so does the likelihood that it will have the means to prosper and survive in the new economy of the 21st The Digital Economy.On the factory floors of Muddle, Incorporated, we follow the trials and tribulations of a handful of Muddle’s employees and their desperate attempts to convince top management of the need to recognize and overcome the three obstacles to the achievement of any non-trivial goal; i.e., the hurdles imposed by Unnecessary Complexity, Excessive Variability, and – in particular – a massive reservoir of Intellectual Myopia. Until those three obstacles are surmounted, or at the very least mitigated, there is no manufacturing management fad or motivational speech that will provide the Muddle Corporation with any significant or, in particular, sustainable improvement in the performance of their factories.

213 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2019