The term focused factory, was introduced in a 1974 Harvard Business Review article authored by Wickham Skinner. Responding to what the popular press called a "productivity crisis," Skinner introduced his solution to the problem. Skinner conducted a study of approximately fifty companies and found that the problem was not only productivity, but also the ability to compete. Manufacturing policies had not been designed, tuned, and focused (as a whole) on that one, key, strategic, manufacturing task essential to the company's success. Skinner urged manufacturers to learn to focus each plant on a limited, concise, manageable set of products, technologies, volumes, and markets. He also encouraged firms to learn to structure basic manufacturing policies and supporting services so that they focus on one, specific, manufacturing task instead of upon many inconsistent, conflicting, or implicit tasks.

Often, a conventional factory produces many products for many customers in many markets...