Designing Human-Centred Technology : Cross-Disciplinary Project in Computer-Aided Manufacturing

The development of new technology is usually carried out by engineers, computer scientists and the like, having a background in the "hard sciences". When the resulting systems are found to be unsatisfactory for those who work with them, social scientists may be called upon to redesign jobs and working conditions. Only rarely is a sociotechnical approach employed, in which social and technical aspects are considered simultaneously. When it is, the details of the technology are usually not called into question, but only such matters as which of several commercially-available technologies should be used. The book describes an attempt to overcome this artificial and damaging separation of the technical and the human aspects of a new technology. A team comprising engineers, computer scientists, and a social scientist set out to develop jointly a human-centred machining system "in which operators are not subordinate to machines". The problems which arose from this cooperation are frankly discussed by those involved in the work and in its management. Many lessons, and some encouragement can be drawn by others wishing to follow a similar path.Rosenbrock, Howard Harry is the author of 'Designing Human-Centred Technology : Cross-Disciplinary Project in Computer-Aided Manufacturing', published 1989 under ISBN 9783540195672 and ISBN 354019567X.