Networks in Assembly: Investigating Social Factors in Robotic Automation

Christian Resch ()
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Christian Resch: Institute of Sociology, Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

No 01/2017, IET Working Papers Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IET/CICS.NOVA-Interdisciplinary Centre on Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology

Abstract: Automation will be one of the shaping influences of the coming decades. The increased application of robots in assembly will undoubtedly change these work environments. However, studies which attempt to predict the effect on the labour market resulting from the automation of work processes and the replacement of jobs suffer from overly simplistic dichotomy between routine and non-routine tasks. In contrast, research at the micro-level of the shop floor has shown that even routine tasks draw heavily on informal knowledge and experience. This paper reviews the concepts which describe these work processes and the necessary forms of knowledge and experience. I then argue that the literature on social networks in organisations can provide useful conceptual and methodical tools to investigate how these kinds of knowledge and experience are transferred between workers. Social network research therefore can serve as a way to shed light on the social factors in robotic automation. The paper concludes with the opportunities which the application of network analysis to assembly can provide for social network research itself.

Keywords: Automation; Robotics; Work processes; Social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J5 L2 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2017-09
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ieu:wpaper:72

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