Skill based manufacturing vs. “unmanned factory”—which is superior?

Abstract

Past development of small batch production has led to advanced horizontal and vertical division of labor, job shop manufacturing, and the use of NC machines. This has caused serious difficulties such as long and variant throughput times, an unfavorable ratio of unproductive to productive workers, and low quality of work. Additionally confronted with deeply changed market conditions, the management is split over the right answer to this challenge. Most managers and production planners try to replace human work still further by enforced use of computers on the shop floor and in the technical office in an integrated manner (CIM). Since this strategy is very likely to create new severe problems, the minority seeks to avoid them by reorganizing production and rearranging the division of functions between humans and machines profoundly (skill based manufacturing). This position is outlined in this paper in some detail and examples of realized subsystems, as first steps on this development path, are included. Finally, reasons for its superiority and resistance to implement it are discussed.