ABSTRACT
Research on the development of skill structures and skill requirements in industrial manufacturing, especially in light of the increasing dissemenination of new computer-based technologies and the changing nature of company rationalization processes, has yielded a number of findings, both complementary and contradictory. This chapter uses the furniture industry to provide a detailed description of the development of skill requirements and conclusions on work structures in industrialized manufacturing. In the course of the restructuring process in the furniture industry, the companies found themselves increasingly confronted with skill problems in their attempts to utilize new technologies and realize technological-organizational adjustment measures. Even the manufacturers of exclusive furniture, with their complex manufacturing facilities, end up displaying both enterprise-internal and -external polarization tendencies, mainly with regard to how high-level knowledge of machines and electronics gets structured.
