ABSTRACT
This chapter analysis the introduction of new technology in detail in two cases: the one concerns the introduction of process control in an aluminium factory; the second case is about the introduction of numerically controlled and computer numerical control (CNC) technology in a machine-tool factory. In 1979 the control mechanism CNC 600 was the first freely programmable control developed in the German Democratic Republic on the basis of microprocessors. The introduction of the two new rolling mills has had two main reasons. First of all the need for aluminium foil, above all in the processing industry, had drastically increased. A second reason was compatibility with the producer of the base material. The new mills were imported from France and installed together with GDR companies. Workers from the traditional mills were offered work at the new machines after their installation. Rolling and cutting at both the old and the new machines still imply a certain number of manual operations.
