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Automation in Engineering

In: The Management of Technical Change

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  • Alan Booth

Abstract

Engineering has been the key manufacturing industry of the midtwentieth century. It is conventionally divided into vehicles, mechanical engineering (such as the making of machine tools, civil engineering plant), electrical and electronic engineering and instrument-making. There are, however, different national conventions about where these divisions fall, making international comparison very difficult (Saunders 1978: 11–13). Methods of production are extremely varied, and are conventionally divided into “mass” and “flexible” production, though each can be sub-divided and the boundaries between them are uncertain.1 Some parts of engineering were profoundly changed by automation in the 1950s, with the introduction of automatic transfer machines (ATMs) in “volume” branches and N/C machine tools in “specialty” production. From the early 1970s production engineers began to see the potential of N/C tools and “robotics” in volume production, though this change is frequently associated with “Japanisation” (Chapter 8 below).

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Booth, 2006. "Automation in Engineering," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Management of Technical Change, chapter 4, pages 71-94, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-80060-1_4
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230800601_4
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