Sources of Productivity Gains in Office Automation

Abstract

The cost and availability of office information workers are becoming increasingly important problems at the professional-managerial as well as at the secretarial-clerical level. Electronics and computer technologies are rapidly approaching the point at which cost effective systems for improving office worker productivity are becoming feasible for wide scale use. These systems make possible, and in fact, encourage, simplification of the work flow processes within the office, and this simplification is a major source of productivity gains. Results from studies with advanced office systems in a professional environment will be discussed in this paper from the point of view of the process changes that they cause and the productivity gains that resulted.