Human-centred by design? The adoption of CAD in the UK

The appropriate forms of organisational arrangements to accompany the introduction of integrative technologies such as CAD and their implications for operator skills and work organisation have been hotly debated. For some, CAD represents yet another example of a technology being used to deskill a previously higly skilled occupational group, whilst for others it is a technology which allows a break with the deskilling trend, raising the possibility of much human-centred forms of work organisation. This paper examines the introduction of CAD in six UK organisations and highlights the need for strategic, but at the same time more skill-based, approaches. The prospects for the development of such an approach in the UK are briefly evaluated.