| In this thesis, the author distinguished between conventional and preventive approaches to the engineering, management, and regulation of modern technology. The preventive orientation of discrete manufacturing systems engineering was then assessed and found to be wanting. With the aim of extending the preventive engineering paradigm to discrete manufacturing systems engineering, relevant case studies were examined with a focus on which structural aspects of discrete manufacturing systems impacted the psychosocial conditions of work. Using a refined version of the demand-control model to interpret these findings, a design principle was formulated for the preventive design of manufacturing systems. The principle of functional integration, supported by a lengthening of work cycle times, parallelising of line flow, and the provision of goal-oriented information, was further developed using a set of methodological tools provided by Rasmussen's abstraction hierarchy and action-regulation theory. Implications for education, corporate planning and decision-making, and public policy were briefly dealt with. |
