Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The biggest-selling book in MIT history, Made in America is the definitive account of how America works. Based on interviews with hundreds of workers, this vivid portrait not only identifies weaknesses and problems in management and productivity, but offers workable solutions for making American business work well again.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Through painstaking research, including interviews with workers, managers, executives, and others on three continents, the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, a team of leading physical and social scientists, engineers, and business educators, has studied the decline in U.S. industrial performance from an international perspective. The authors focus on major product markets--autos; chemicals; commercial aircraft; consumer electronics; machine tools; semiconductors; computers and copiers; steel; and textiles--and identify the causes of productivity weakness and make valuable suggestions for change directed at business, labor, government, and education. This important work is readable and informative. Highly recommended.-- Leonard Grundt, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This report presenting the results of an MIT study on industrial productivity in the US combines the work of scientists, engineers, and economists. The authors focus on US competitive performance as compared to that of Europe, Japan, and the newly industrializing countries. An introductory chapter summarizes the status of the major industrial sectors, such as chemicals, steel, machine tools, etc. There is no discussion of the services sector. Successive chapters deal with international competition and competitive strategies and the principal ills--human resources, lack of cooperation, short time-horizons, confrontation with government, and technological lags. There are prescriptions for change, with respect both to business strategies and to public policies. There is also a chapter on the appropriate role of universities. The study is extremely well thought out and probably represents the best available analysis of the competitiveness issue today. No bibliography. Highly recommended for college and university libraries. -I. Walter, New York University