A method for job design in concurrent engineering

Job design is one of the key elements in the design of production systems. It links other activities, such as machine tool selection, to personnel pla nning and therefore largely to the characteristics of the required personne l. We present a method that allows a task structure to be generated early, when information is still poorly defined, to be continuously adapted to the increasing level of derail, and to be used to deduce personnel needs. Firs t, requirements for such a method with respect to the necessary modeling el ements, scope, and ease of use are derived. Second, a variety of existing m ethods, ranging from job analysis to object-oriented modeling tools, is jud ged with respect to these requirements. Since no existing method fulfills t he requirements satisfactorily, a new method was developed. This method is a combination of a modeling method with a job analysis method and is especi ally suited to deal with poorly defined information. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.