
Performance on Purpose • 153
Boeing, like most manufacturers, abandoned the process-focused model
and adopted, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a results-oriented production
mentality. Its operating creed was “Manufacturing Resource Planning.” e
new church was discrete scheduling (i.e., optimize the parts, not the whole)
and the deity was “Material Requirements Planning,” which pushes mate-
rials based on forecasts (schedules) rather than pull to customer demand
(as mathematically determined). Like most manufacturers, from 1960 for-
ward, Boeing became a disciple of the conventional illusion of Material
Requirements Planning and blindly acc ...