Numerical Control Machining and the Issue of Deskilling

Abstract

Empirical research and analytic thinking about the effects of numerical control (NC) machining on the skills of machinists present a mixed view of the issue. Some researchers and analysts report that the operation of NC equipment requires more overall skill than that of conventional machines, while others suggest that only the types of skills may be different. Still others claim that a radical deskilling of machinists has been taking place. Differences in definition of skill account for some divergent views, but the issue is more than semantic. Interviews with a small group of machinists experienced in both conventional and NC matching suggest that seven major factors affect whether the introduction of NC machining leads to a change in overall skill level or in the skill mix. The interview data do not support the deskilling hypothesis.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ASHER, R. (1983) Connecticut Workers and Technological Change. Storrs, CT: The University of Connecticut, Center for Oral History.

BRAVERMAN, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

BRIGHT, J. (1958) Automation and Management. Boston: Harvard Univ. Press.

BRIGHT, J. (1966) “The Relationship of increasing automation and skill requirements,” in National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress, The Employment Impact of Technological Change, Appendix Vol. II, Technology and The American Economy. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

CHILDS, J. I. (1965) Principles of Numerical Control. New York: Industrial Press.

CROSSMAN, E. F. W. , S. LANER , L. F. DAVIS , and S. H. CAPLAN (1966) “Evaluation of changes in skill profile and job content due to technological change: methodology and pilot results from the banking, steel and aerospace industries.” Berkeley: University of California, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

FORESTER, T. [ed.] (1981) The Micro-electronics Revolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

GITTLEMAN, K. and K. SCHULTZ (1980) “Building the NC team is a management job,” in Moorehead (1980).

HAZLEHURST, R. J. , R. J. BRADBURY , and E. N. CORLETT (1969) “A comparison of the skills of machinists on numerically controlled and conventional machines.” Occupational Psychology, Vol. 43, Nos. 3&4: 169-182.

10.

HIRSCHHORN, L. (1984) Beyond Mechanization: Work and Technology in a Postindustrial Age. Cambridge, MA.: Mit Press.

11.

KUSTERER, K. (1978) Know How on the Job. Boulder, CO: Westview.

12.

LEONE, W. C. (1967) Production, Automation and Numerical Control. New York: Harper & Row.

13.

LUNDGREN, E. R. (1969) “Effects of NC on organizational structure.” Automation No. 76 (January, 1969): 44-47.

14.

MOORHEAD, J. [ed.] (1980) Numerical Control: Fundamentals. Dearborn, MI: Computer and Automated Systems Association of Society of Mechanical Engineers.

15.

NOBLE, D. F. (1978) “Social choice in machine design: the case of automatically controlled machine tools, and challenge to labor.” Politics and Society 8, Nos. 3&4.: 313-347.

16.

NOBLE, D. F. (1979) “Social choice in machine design: the case of automatically controlled machine tools.” In Zimbalist (1979).

17.

NOBLE, D. F. (1984) Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

18.

REZLER, J. (1969) Automation and Industrial Labor. New York: Random House.

19.

SABEL, C. F. (1982) Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

20.

SHAIKEN, H. (1980) “Computer technology and the relations of power in the workplace.” Berlin: International Institute for Comparative Social Research. (unpublished)

21.

SHAIKEN, H. (1985) Work Transformed: Automation and Labor in the Computer Age. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

22.

SWORDS-ISHER WOOD, N. and P. SENKER (1981) “Management resistance to the new technology.” In Forester (1981).

23.

U.S. Department of Labor (1982) Technology and Labor in Four Industries. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 2104. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

24.

WILKINSON, B. (1983) The Shopfloor Politics of New Technology. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.

25.

ZICKLIN, G. (1984) “Braverman and deskilling: the question of NC operators.” Paper delivered at American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

26.

ZIMBALIST, A. [ed.] (1979) Case Studies on the Labor Process. New York: Monthly Review Press.