Technology and Work Organization in Mechanical Engineering (NIFA-Panel: 8th Wave 1998)

Company profile, product structure, use of technology in the company,
qualification, personnel structure, production structure, work organization
in production among small and medium-sized companies in business in the
area of mechanical engineering.
Topics:
company profile:
type of company;
number of production locations;
proportion of tensile processing in product manufacture;
manufacture in the company and out-sourced processes in production;
previous and expected turnover development, personnel development,
profit development and development of demand;
judgement on uniqueness of organization of the departments in the company and
written documentation of rules within the company;
judgement on the distribution of leadership tasks to various employees and
different levels;
judgement on the current profit situation of the company and
the economic situation of mechanical engineering over-all;
current order backlog;
volume of turnover 1997;
percentage of finished product groups based on individual orders,
framework orders as well as without specific order;
changes in responsibility of individual company areas in the last three years;
areas of cooperation with other enterprises.
Customer and supplier relations:
rank order of competitive strategy for current and new markets;
total number of customers of the company in the last year;
number of steady customers and their proportion of over-all turnover;
customer structure and their proportion of turnover;
dependence of the company on a few large customers
with long-term supply relations;
further processing of delivered products by the customers and by the company;
delivery at regular time intervals;
possibility for customers and company to change the composition of the delivery
on short notice;
responsibility of project groups for cooperation with customers and suppliers;
extent of influence of suppliers and customers.
Product structure:
characterization of company as manufacturer of complete facilities or
manufacturer of individual parts;
proportion of production of standard products and
production according to customer specification;
introduction of innovative products;
assessment of future development of product structure, stockpile production,
the length of the economic life of the products, load fluctuations,
proportion of purchase of 3rd-party services, number of the emergency orders,
the time through the production process as well as
delivery of products according to the just-in-time-principle (scale).
Use of technology in the company:
information on all work processes
supported by computer-aided technologies and procedures in the company.
Personnel structure:
number of employees in production and management as well as
information on their degree of qualification;
transferring personnel within individual company areas (scale);
employees newly hired as well as leaving in the last year.
Production structure:
proportion of mass production, small- and large-scale production as well as
one-of-a-kind production;
proportion of production within company;
reasons for transferring production orders to 3rd parties as well as
into the company;
characterization of technology equipment in production;
capacity use in the last year relative to machines and personnel.
Work organization in production:
extent of activities in individual work processes
taken care of by machine operators and workshop personal;
group work in the area of production;
number of work groups;
organization structure and general characterization of work groups.
Company profile:
existence of "sister companies" and their influence on decisions in the company;
deliveries to sister companies;
further processing of products delivered to sister companies;
delivery in regular time intervals;
possibility for sister companies to change delivery composition on short notice;
responsibility of project groups for cooperation with sister companies;
extent of influence of enterprise management on decisions in individual areas.