|
|
ForewordThere can now be little doubt that contemporary manufacturing industry is undergoing a major paradigm shift away from the mass production (Tayloristic) paradigm that has long dominated industrial corporations worldwide. The emerging paradigm, which is known as Agile Manufacturing [1], is forcing us to completely reassess our values, our culture and our approaches. A key element in this reassessment is the shift of focus towards a systematic examination of the organization and people issues in advanced manufacturing. This concern with organization and people issues manifests itself in at least three forms. First, there is the commercial concern to build agile infrastructures for manufacturing enterprises by integrating technology, organization and people (TOP). This concern is reflected in asking fundamental questions about business precesses and the strategies required for TOP integration. Secondly, there is the need to achieve competitive advantage from organizational structures and practices and from the skills and knowledge of our people. This concern is seen through the widespread interest in concurrent engineering, team working, continuous improvement, empowerment, etc. Thirdly, there is an interest, often born from implementation failures and disappointments, to master the difficult process of designing and implementing advanced manufacturing systems, giving proper consideration to the importance of organization and people issues [2-4]. These three areas represent the dominant theme of this book. Of the 166 papers contained in this volume, about 70% are in someway connected with the issue of developing methods and tools to support TOP integration or to support the analysis, design and implementation of advanced manufacturing systems and concepts. This book contains papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Human Aspects of Advanced Manufacturing and Hybrid Automation held in Manchester, England on July 6-8 1994. The objective of this biennial conference is to provide an international forum to promote, exchange and disseminate information and research results on the organization and people aspects of advanced manufacturing systems, with particular emphasis on the enhancement of human skills and the integration of these skills with machine performance to achieve productivity, quality, flexibility and safety. Reflecting the nature of this field, the forum of the meeting was multidisciplinary with participation from all segments of the international scientific and engineering communities. The conference also provided industrial managers with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the latest developments in this important field. The book is organized into 10 parts. The first part consists of the four keynote papers given at the conference. The second part (9 papers) deals with the issue of Manufacturing Paradigms. Part III, consisting of 15 papers, addresses the issues surrounding Concurrent Engineering and New Product Development. Part IV groups 37 papers which are devoted to the Design and Implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Systems - a topic of increasing importance to industry. Part V (12 papers) is devoted to Human Computer Interaction. In Part VI, 12 papers address issues of Reliability, Safety and Health Issues. The emerging area of Skill and Knowledge Enhancing Technologies is considered in Part VII (23 papers). In Part VIII (16 papers), traditional Human Performance and Ergonomic Design Issues are discussed. Organizational and Cultural Change and Human Roles (32 papers) are addressed in Part IX. The last 6 papers (Part X) discuss Quality and Maintenance Strategies. We would like to acknowledge the advice of members of the International Scientific Advisory Board. We would also like to acknowledge the support and sponsorship of this conference by the Ergonomics Society in England, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in the United States, the Institution of Electrical Engineers in England, the International Ergonomics Association, Manufacturing KnowledgeTM Inc. and the MONITOR-FAST Programme of the Commission of the European Communities. References [1] Paul T. Kidd, Agile Manufacturing: Forging New Frontiers. Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England, 1994. [2] A. Majchrzak, M. Fleischer, D. Roithman and J. Mokray, Reference Manual for Performing the HITOP Analysis. Industrial Technology Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, 1991. [3] Waldemar Karwowski and Gavriel Salvendy (Eds.), Organization and Management of Advanced Manufacturing. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994. [4] Gavriel Salvendy and Waldemar Karwowski (Eds.), Design of Work and Development of Personnel in Advanced Manufacturing. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994.
|
Copyright © 2000, Cheshire
Henbury, Created by Paul T. Kidd, Revised July 2000
http://www.CheshireHenbury.com
| Move Back to Book Page |
|