Button2002

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Button2002
BibType ARTICLE
Key Button2002
Author(s) Graham Button, Wes W. Sharrock
Title Operating the production calculus: ordering a production system in the print industry
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Planning, Organizational structure, Production scheduling, Shop-floor work, Practical calculi, Effort bargaining, Print Industry
Publisher
Year 2002
Language
City
Month
Journal British Journal of Sociology
Volume 53
Number 2
Pages 275–290
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/00071310220133340
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

The topic of shop-floor work has been extensively examined within sociology. However, the organizational structures within which this work takes place have, in the most part, been taken as unexamined givens. Yet, their operation is also the shop-floor work of some people. This paper examines the way in which the stable organizational structures within which shop-floor work takes place are achieved. It is based upon a fieldwork investigation of a large commercial printer and focuses upon the collaborative work of those who are involved in scheduling the production of a job and their use of ‘the production calculus’ in planning the work of the site. The print industry is undergoing considerable technological change and scheduling technologies have been developed to automate this work. However, there has been little take up of these technologies and the paper also considers how the characteristics of operating the production calculus in practice may account for this.

Notes