Experience and Competence -- Limits to the Mechanization of Workplaces in Industrial Production

An analysis of new economic concepts in modern manufacturing, eg, computer-integrated manufacturing. These concepts ostensibly raise the level of rationality in the production process & are considered a key component of scientific management. Computerized control systems are thought to be largely independent of tampering by human management & are being introduced to eliminate power resulting from knowledge of how to control the production process. Industrial sociology can contribute by identifying factors that cannot be reduced to simple machine functions. The new control systems are transforming industrial processes, but they are not creating labor free from human control. Changes in the work environment become a source of rationality helping machines & organizations to work effectively. 19 References. M. Meeks