Defining Technology
• Technology is an organization’s production process and includes work and procedures as well as machinery
• “technology” different than electronic technology Core vs. Noncore Work
Core vs. Noncore Work
• Core: work process that is directly related to organizational mission
– E.g. teaching at a university
• Noncore: a department work process that is important to the organization but is not directly related to its primary mission
– E.g. Human resources
Core Transformation Process for a
Manufacturing Company
]
• 1950s Taylorism was big
• “One best way”
• Woodward surveyed 100 manufacturing firms
– Looked at how they were organized
– Interviewed managers
– Looked at relative success of organization
• Woodward developed a scale organizing firms according to technological complexity
– High complexity many machines involved
– Low complexity many workers involved
Joan Woodward
• Woodward published a book "Industrial
Organization: Behaviour and Control“
• About research in organizational structures
• longitudinal study of 100 organisations
– 1950-59
Woodward’s Classification Based on System of Production
When Technology Leads to Disaster
• https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JbP15D6D6s • Piper Alpha
Technological Disaster
A disaster attributed in part or entirely to human intent, error, negligence, or involving a failure of a man-made system, resulting in significant injuries or deaths
(The free Dictionary)
Causes of technological:
• Design errors
• Insufficient training
• Poor planning
• Greed
• Mismanagement
• Multiple errors at the same time
• Ignoring procedures
• Operator errors
• The unexpected
Bhopal Chemical Disaster
•
•
•
•
a gas leak incident in Bhopal, India
2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited
Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals
• Toxic cloud spread over shanty towns located near the plant
• Official death toll was 2,259
• Estimates as high as over 500,000 injured
Why the Leak?
• A worker cleaning out pipes with water sparked the disaster. • He did not use a basic but vital piece of equipment to isolate sections of pipe.
• Water got into the tank where the MIC was stored, raising the temperature to over 200 degrees Celsius
(392F), creating the lethal gas.
• Several safety systems failed or were not working.
Hudon River Landing
Flexible Manufacturing Systems
Flexible Manufacturing Systems
• The shop floor has been revolutionized
– Computer-aided design (CAD)
– Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
– Integrated Information Network
• FMS means that new products can be designed and prototypes without human hands 16
Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
• Use of computer systems to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design
• CAD software available
– Increases the productivity of the designer
– improves the quality of design
– improves communications through documentation
– creates a database for manufacturing
• Allows for images of prototypes
Computer-aided
Manufacturing (CAM)
• The use of computer software to control machine tools and related machinery in manufacturing
• also refer to the use of a computer to assist in all operations of a manufacturing plant, including planning, management, transportation and storage
• Its primary purpose is to create a faster production process
• Aims to use components and tooling with more precise dimensions and material consistency
• Uses only the required amount of raw material (thus minimizing waste)
• Reduces energy consumption
Integrated Information Network
• A computerized system links all aspects of the firm • Accounting, purchasing, marketing, inventory control, design production
