Background
MELMAN, Seymour was born in 1917 in New York City, New York, United States of America.
MELMAN, Seymour was born in 1917 in New York City, New York, United States of America.
BSS City College New York, 1939. Doctor of Philosophy Columbia University, 1949.
Research Staff, National Industrial Conference Board, 1944-1945. Instructor, Assistant Professor, Association Professor, Columbia University, 1948-1951,
6, 1956-1963. Consultant, United Nations on Economic Conversion, 1979-1980.
Eugene Lan Visiting Professor Social Change, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1984. Professor Industrial Engineering, Columbia University, New York, United States of America, since 1963.
(The peace race (Ballantine books) (Mass Market Paperback)...)
I have explored the dynamics of production decision-making in industry and the determinants of industrial productivity. My early work on management methods (1949-1958) defined the growing cost of managing in American industry. That growth has been a function of enlarged
scope and intensity of administrative functions, and has been independent of productivity.
Studies of machineryproducing industries (1958-1959) gave an early warning of the breakdown of costminimising in United States industry under the impact of the military economy and the declining rate of productivity growth in United States manufacturing after 1965.
After 1958 a series of books, monographs, and articles on military economy disclosed the following characteristics: firms in the United States military economy operate to maximise cost and subsidy. Engineering design, production methods and administrative methods are shaped by this unique microeconomy. The structure of United States military economy was found to be that of a multidivision firm (of contractors) operating under a central administrative office (the Pentagon).
Major macroeconomic effects include depressing the aggregate rate of productivity growth and depleting effects on infrastructure. These investigations disclosed requirement for carrying out the conversion of enterprises, manufacturing facilities, and military bases from military to civilian work. Recent studies disclosed that top managers have abandoned their 200-year-old interest and competence in the organisation of work.
These competences have been displaced in favour of making money rather than making goods. This transformation, together with the inefficient military system, has depressed the economic and technical competence of United States industry and given rise to a new problem of industrial stagnation.