Towards socio-technical prototyping of work systems

Abstract

Although prototyping is a technique widely used in manufacturing industry during the design development and manufacture of a new or updated project, the technique is rarely used to test out options during the design of a manufacturing system. The work organization action simulation was developed in response to a need identified in the training of engineers. Such an approach can be used to prototype socio-technical systems and explore technical options in association with the organizational structure.