ABSTRACT
The Workspace project was a major European research initiative set up to investigate the possibility of improving the quality of production in manufacturing industry through workspace design. The workspace concept was summarised as follows:
It is widely recognized that industrial production requires the bringing together of two systems-a technical system and a human/social system. For these two to work together effectively in a combined socio-technica1 system, the space in which they operate must allow them to integrate effectively. Moreover it must be flexible enough for this interface to remain, despite changes in the production process, the product and market. The role of workspace as an instrument of production is less widely recognized and hence its design and management are not subjects of strategic planning and systematic decision making, nor is the performance of workspace systematically audited (Hoefnage1s et al., 1998).
