Alternatives for the Integration of Cad/Cam

The discussion of models and the available published experience on the use of integrated CAD/CAM systems make it clear that there are different organizational alternatives. If the integration follows the traditional pattern of Tayloristic “Scientific Management”, the option of centralizing the structures of direction and authority as a result of the integration of data material and computer-based information and control systems is used to exclude human labour from the production process or to confine it to very limited residual functions which can not (yet) be substituted by technological means. If such an approach is pursued, CAD/CAM technology means an end to all qualifications and social relations which were previously indispensable to organize and maintain the production process. The new technology is viewed as an instrument to “expropriate” individual and professional knowledge and to absorb the social communication structures, which until now had been indispensable for the organization and maintenance of the production process. Communication and exchange among the workforce are no longer necessary. They even seem to obstruct the work of the individual worker. The control over the work performance is centralized and rests with senior management and there is a tendency for it to become more and more extensive as the frequency of the on-line dialogue, the use of computing times at the individual workplace and thus the time used to accomplish a work task is automatically recorded and can be checked at any time.