ABSTRACT
In the new international division of production there is little room for an independent viable manufacturing base in Australia. In 1946 only 13 per cent of Australian homes had a refrigerator and a mere two per cent had a washing machine. The concept of skill was traditionally bound up with craft mastery. An overall knowledge of products and processes was combined with the manual dexterity required to actually carry on a specific branch of production. This is a well established distinction that is used quite consciously as a way of dividing jobs. It is formalised in the sense that there is legislation limiting the weights that can be lifted by women. The whitegoods industry is in a stage of transition following recent restructuring. Automation involves not only the drastic reduction of labour but the introduction of new principles of control and decision-making. Two sorts of computer based automation are being introduced: automatic transfer equipment (robots) and numerical control machines.
