Advanced manufacturing technology and stress: technology and management support policies

This paper examines the characteristics of the working environment of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), which may pose stress-related threats to employees. These characteristics are associated with the technology itself (unreliability, unpredictability, performance, pacing and interface) or with the nature of AMT work (interdependence, pressure to increase automation, layout, skills obsolescence). The negative impact of these potential sources of stress, however, can be buffered or even eliminated with relatively inexpensive technological features and sound management policies designed to increase the operator’s job control. These measures facilitate the implementation of AMT so that its full benefits can be reaped.

Keywords: advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), shop-floor automation, stress, technology management