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A framework for continuous design of production systems and its application in collective redesign of production line equipment
Author(s) -
Darses Françoise
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing and service industries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.408
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1520-6564
pISSN - 1090-8471
DOI - 10.1002/hfm.10001
Subject(s) - factory (object oriented programming) , production (economics) , production line , process (computing) , task (project management) , process management , continuous production , computer science , manufacturing engineering , operations management , risk analysis (engineering) , industrial engineering , management science , engineering , operations research , systems engineering , business , mechanical engineering , environmental engineering , economics , macroeconomics , programming language , operating system
The continuous design of production systems is a major challenge facing companies, and one that requires organization and systematization . This article describes one of the continuous design endeavors implemented in a factory manufacturing steel tubes. We have studied the collective redesign of production line equipment. For 2 years, we followed the operations of a multioccupational group composed of the various actors involved in manufacturing (including the operators). Their task was to redesign the tools used in their production line. Our analysis is focused on the cognitive side of the activity and especially on the collective redesign processes. From the transcripts of the meetings, we have examined how the codesigners come to an agreement about the redesigned equipment. We show that the criteria spontaneously used for the evaluation of the solution are far wider (quantitatively and qualitatively) than the list of functional criteria prescribed to the codesigners for the decision‐making process. This analysis leads us to propose three conditions that have to be met to guarantee success: (a) a true systemic view of the production system must be developed by all the continuous design actors, (b) there must be support for the collective decision‐making process, and (c) new forms of knowledge must be institutionalized. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.