Supporting shop floor intelligence: A CSCW approach to production planning and control in flexible manufacturing

Many manufacturing enterprises are now trying to introduce various forms of flexible work organizations on the shop floor. However, existing computer-based production planning and control systems pose severe obstacles for autonomous working groups and other kinds of shop floor control to become reality.

The research reported in this paper is predicated on the belief that the CSCW approach could offer a strategy for dealing with this problem. The paper describes the field work and its constructive outcome: a system that assists shop-floor teams in dealing with the complexities of day-to-day production planning by supporting intelligent and responsible workers in their situated coordination activities on the shop floor.