Title: Constructive learning: a new approach to deploying technological systems into the workplace

Authors: Lia DiBello, J-C. Spender

Addresses: Laboratory for Cognitive Studies of Activity, City University of New York Graduate Centre, 33 West 42 Street, New York NY 10036, USA. ' Faculty of Management, Rutgers University, 180 University Avenue, Newark NJ 07102, USA

Abstract: High-technology production and information systems are becoming increasingly common in the workplace. Those who work with them need formal and knowledge-intensive skills that match the way these systems work. The traditional methods of shopfloor education, learning-by-doing from other skilled operators, or from the equipment supplier, are risky, expensive and inefficient. Classroom training does not work well either. We describe two-day constructive learning workshops designed to help introduce MRP, the widely used computer-based production and inventory management system, into a major transportation maintenance facility. MRP is notoriously difficult to install successfully. These workshops worked well and reduced the operatives| learning period by upwards of a year.

Keywords: organisational learning; constructive learning; workplace knowledge; complex systems training; training simulation; high technology; high-tech systems; MRP introduction; material requirements planning; technology management; transport maintenance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1996.025465

International Journal of Technology Management, 1996 Vol.11 No.7/8, pp.747 - 758

Published online: 22 May 2009 *

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