Appropriate technology for manufacturing: Some management issues.
This paper introduces the idea of appropriate technology and applies it to the choices organisations make when designing, implementing and managing advanced manufacturing technologies. Five sets of choices are considered: the type and level of technology; the allocation of functions between humans and machines; the role of humans in advanced systems; the organisation structures to support them; and the ways in which people participate in their design. The paper concludes that most organisations are not effective at developing and implementing appropriate technologies, and that ergonomists have failed to meet the needs of technologies and managers in these areas.
Clegg
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MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.