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This is a translation - with some new material - of a seminal contribution to the debate about the design of tomorrow's factories in the light of advancing computer and control technology. Peter Brödner contrasts mass production with workshop production and challenges the assertion that modern production systems create multi-faceted and responsible tasks requiring correspondingly intense training. He analyses the impact of automation on intellectual work and knowledge-based systems. Is the "workerless factory" possible, or even desirable? Can we avoid the future shown in Lang's Metropolis? Can computers really be made to help rather than replace the workforce? Peter Brödner succeeds in transforming a sociological critical study and economic analysis into a series of convincing technological proposals, based on his thorough understanding of production technologies gained whilst working at the Production Engineering Centre in Karlsruhe.
The book was originally published in German under the title Fabrik 2000.
Eine kritische soziologische Studie und ökonomische Analyse moderner Produktionsmethoden führen zu einer Reihe überzeugender technologischer Vorschläge. Die deutsche Originalfassung dieses Buches hat den Titel Fabrik 2000.
List of contents
1. The Factory of the Future.- 1.1 Prophecies by the Dozen.- 1.2 Banish the False Prophets!.- 1.3 The Workshop, not the Production Line.- 2. The Origins and Nature of the Factory.- 2.1 The Heroic Phase.- 2.2 The Computer and the Automation of "One-offs".- 2.3 Today's Factory: Unresolved Problems.- 3. The Technocentric Route: Fossilized Taylorism.- 3.1 "The Ghost Shift": Forerunner of the Workerless Factory?.- 3.2 White-Collar Automation.- 3.3 The Failure of Isolated Systems.- 3.4 The Second "Heroic Phase": CIM and Expert Systems.- 4. The Anthropocentric Route: The Return of the Human Being.- 4.1 The Workerless Factory: Signs of Return.- 4.2 Human or Machine: Who Controls?.- 4.3 Group Technology: A Non-Taylorist Route.- 4.4 Forces of Inertia.- 5. Horizons New: Farewell to Necessary Work?.- 5.1 Investment Decision Making: Pastures New.- 5.2 Work Planning is Available in Every Case.- 5.3 The Dangers of Segmentation.- 5.4 Conclusion: For and Against the Anthropocentric Production Concept.
