ABSTRACT
As manufacturing systems change, they offer more possible alternative allocations of function between people and other system elements. Technical advances in integration between machines and computing power have provided us with capabilities which are not only new but which force us to rethink our allocation philosophy. An obvious example is that computing power can be widely distributed yet inter-connected, instead of being either centralized or isolated. At the same time, new (to most manufacturing industry at least) forms of work organization are being given serious attention, suggesting different ways to allocate functions between people as well as between people and machines.
