Technology and Work Organization in Mechanical Engineering (NIFA Panel: 6th Wave 1996)

Product structure: characterization of company as manufacturer of finished products or manufacturer of individual parts; proportion of production of standard products and production according to customer specification; taking on new innovative products; assessment of future development of product structure, production to stockpile, economic life of products, fluctuations in demand, the proportion of 3rd-party services purchased, the number of emergency orders, time through the production process as well as delivery of products according to the just-in-time principle (scale); type of services offered, such as application support, consultation, waste disposal, documentation, spare part service, financing, maintenance, schooling, software development.

Use of technology in the company: information on all work processes supported by computer-aided technologies and procedures in the company. Personnel structure: number of employees in production and management as well as information on their degree of qualification; newly hired as well as employees retired in the last year. Production structure: proportion of mass production, small and large series production as well as one-of-a-kind production; proportion of company production; reasons for out-sourcing production tasks as well as (if appropriate) accepting tasks in the company from outside; proportion of workshop production, team production, assembly-line production, workbench production and production at construction sites in the company; characterization of technology available in production; capacity utilization in the last year, regarding machines and personnel; dependence of organizational and technical changes in the company on requirements outside the company.

Work organization in production: extent of activities taken care of by machine operators and workshop personnel in the individual work processes; teamwork in the area of production; number of teams; organization structure and general characterization of teams; organization of working hours such that departure from usual working hours is possible; establishing difference by company management or employees; time period to balance core working hours.

Qualification: support of qualification measures on the part of the company; proportion of employees participating from the individual business areas; company size.