Technology and Work Organization in Mechanical Engineering (NIFA Panel: 4th Wave 1994)

Company profile, product structure, use of technology in the company,
qualification, personnel structure, production structure. Use of
computer-aided technologies and conventional technologies in mechanical
engineering, work organization in production. Topics: Company profile:
individual company; cooperation with other companies; proportion of
tensile processing in product manufacture; production for use within
the company and processing contracted out in manufacturing products;
expected turnover development, personnel development, competition
intensity and demand development last year and in the next few years;
leadership style in the company; current order backlog; turnover 1993;
proportion of turnover of the company from selected customer groups;
earning a significant part of turnover with a limited number of
customers in the framework of longer-term contractually secured
supplier relations; description of the supplier relations with
customers; most important competition strategies of the company; use of
cost balancing procedures; commitment of company to a wage agreement;
existence of a works council in the company; completed agreements with
the works council regarding technical or organizational changes in the
last 3 years; involving the works council beyond the legal and wage
agreement rules; location of company in Eastern or Western Germany;
majority owner of company; privatization of the company by the trust;
Product structure: proportion of turnover of the most important product
groups; production of standard products or production according to
customer specification; newly indroducing innovative products or
further development of existing products; assessment of future
development of the product structure. Technology use in the company:
use of computer-aided technologies in production and management;
functions supported by computer-aided technologies and processes; use
of PPS systems; completed or planned change of PPS system; significance
of selected objectives in change of PPS system; support of selected
functions by computer technology; person or department conducting
selected functions. Personnel structure: information on number of
employees and degree of qualification in the different production
areas; change of number of employees in the last year. Production
structure: proportion of mass producing, small-scale and large-scale
production as well as one-of-a-kind production; proportion of
production for use within the company; full utilization of machines and
personnel; proportion of various organization forms and types of
production in over-all production; characterization of technology
equipment in production; establishing changes due to changes outside
the company. Work organization in production: extent of activities in
the individual work processes taken care of by machine operators with
computer-aided as well as conventional means; bundling distribution of
tasks; extent of self-determination of the machine operators; group
work in the area of production; size and composition of teams; task
realized by teams; organization structure and general characterization
of teams. Qualification: type of measures for further education for
employees supported by the company; number of participants and degree
of qualification of participants in such measures for further education.