1. Implementation of Advanced 65th FPS
Int. Con.
Manufacturing Technology in the June 2011
Wood products Industry:
Exploring role and potential of personnel in
China’s furniture industry
Na Yu and Siegfried Lewark
Institute of Forest Utilization and Work Science, University of Freiburg
College of Furniture and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University

2. Introduction
20/6/11 56th FPS convention Portland, OR, USA N. Yu and S. Lewark 2

3. Introduction (continue)
Asking about innovation for next 1 or 2 years ~ (n=26)
23%
Yes
No
Not sure
12% 65%
International Furniture Fair of IMM Cologne 2009
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4. M-T-O model
Elements of a working system (after Strohm 1997, transl. S. Lewark)
- qualifications
- interests and needs
man
primary task
border regulation
border regulation
border regulation
input variations and transformation process variations and output
disturbances disturbances
secondary tasks
technology organisation
problems
- machinery - working processes
- working tools - distribution of work
- space conditions - structures of decision
- structures of communication
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5. Research questions
What are drivers and barriers to the implementation
1 of AMT in China’s furniture industry?
2 What are impacts of implementing AMT on employees?
What can be done in the implementation of AMT regarding
potential of personnel?
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6. Research methods
Case study method (Yin, 2002) .
Face to face interviews with open-ended questions
Questionnaire survey
( Job Diagnostic Survey [JDS], Hackman and Oldham1974)
？
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7. Cases selection
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8. Cases description
Category Firm A Firm B Firm C Firm D
Location Jiangsu Guangdong Shenzhen Zhejiang
Size Medium Medium Large Large
Population of
Employees 500-1000 500-1000 2000 2000
Kitchen and Kitchen and
Type of Product home furniture home furniture Home furniture Office furniture
Sino-foreign joint Sino-foreign
Ownership venture Private Public joint venture
Process
Innovation CIM/MC CIM/MC CIM CIM/LP
Start of
Innovation 2009.4/2003 2006.9/2006.9 2009.5 2009.4/2008.7
CIM: computer integrated manufacturing; MC: mass customization; LP: lean production.
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9. Research procedure
Study period
(One year)
The process of implementing AMT
The first field work The second field work
& data collection & data collection
(May-Aug. 2009) (May-Aug. 2010)
Keeping in touch by phone with
production managers
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10. Research procedure (cont.)
First survey Second survey
2009.5-8 Questionnaire survey 2010.5-8 Questionnaire survey
Interviews Interviews
The AMT implementation processes
Firm A Firm A
Firm B Firm B
Firm C Firm C
Firm D Firm D
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11. Interviews (cont.)
1 Description of respondents
Code Firm A Firm B Firm C Firm D
A-1 B-1 B-2 C-1 C-2 D-1 D-2 D-3
Position Production Production Human Production Supervisor Production Human AMT
manager manager resource manager in manager resource Project
manager production management specialist
specialist
Sex Male Male Male Male Male Female Female Female
Age (y) 30–39 30–39 30–39 30–39 30–39 30–39 25–30 25–30
Education Master Bachelor Master College College Secondary Bachelor Secondary
school school
Working 4 3 1 5 2 3.5 1.5 2
experience
(y)
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12. Interviews (cont.)
2 Interview questions
• What were key drivers of introducing new AMT in the firm?
• What were main barriers in the process of implementing AMT?
• How long did it take the workers to accept the new working system?
• Were the employees willing to accept the new working system?
• How did you motivate the employees in the process of
implementing AMT?
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13. Interviews (cont.)
3 Data collection and analysis
Simultaneously recorded by a digital recorder &
handnotes
Translated by the author from Chinese into English.
A bilingual person proofread and corrected the
translations
Qualitative data analysis (Miles and Huberman,1994)
: reducing the data exploring and describing
the data deepening and explaining the data
making sense of the data and concluding the analysis
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14. Results – Key drivers
Firm A Firm B Firm C Firm D
Production ·The need to improve ·The need to improve ·The need to improve ·The need to improve
process productivity and product productivity and productivity and productivity and
quality product quality product quality product quality
·The need to improve land ·Requirement of
productivity (referring to the changes in production
limitation of land resources) process to meet wide
range of products
·The need to reduce human ·The need to reduce
error in production human error in
production
Human side ·Difficulties in recruitment ·The need to reduce ·Difficulties in ·The need to reduce
caused by shortage of skilled dependence on the recruitment caused by dependence on the
workers work skills of shortage of skilled work skills of
employees workers employees
·Increased labor costs ·The need to reduce
dependency on the
work skills of
employees
·Increased labor costs
Others ·Introducing new production ·Facing bankruptcy ·Requirement of ·Decision of top
line changes in manager were
management Influenced by visiting a
successful firm in
process innovation

15. Results – Main barriers
Firm A Firm B Firm C Firm D
Preparation ·Difficulties for middle ·Difficulties for middle ·Difficulties for middle ·Difficulties for middle
phase managers and managers and managers and managers and
supervisors to supervisors to supervisors to supervisors to
understand the new understand the new understand the new understand the new
production concept production concept production concept production concept
·Difficulties for first line ·Lack of confidence in ·Difficulties for first line
workers to understand the new working workers to understand
the new production system of middle the new production
concept managers and concept
supervisors
·Unwilling to accept ·Unwilling to accept the
the new working new working system
system for skilled for skilled workers
workers
Application ·Difficulties in ·Difficulties in process ·Shortage of qualified ·Difficulties in
phase Communication improvement and staff and workers Communication
between management optimization between management
and worker levels and worker levels
·Shortage of qualified ·Shortage of of ·Insufficient ·Insufficient
staff and workers qualified staff and understanding and understanding and
workers cooperation from other cooperation from other
departments departments
·Ill-matched ·Unsatisfied
organizational structure Organization
environment

16. Questionnaire survey
1 Questionnaire Design
Functionally designed based on the JDS. 9 sections and 18 indicators.
The JDS provides measures of a number of personal, affective reactions or
feelings a person obtains from performing the job.
2 Target group
Employees who were participating the implementation of AMT in the
case-study firms.
3 Data collection
4 Data analysis
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17. Indicators
N. Abb. Indicator N. Abb. Indicator
Skill variety 10 Knowledge of results
Task identity 11 General satisfaction
Task significance 12 Internal work motivation
Autonomy 13 Pay satisfaction
Feedback from the job itself 14 Security satisfaction
Feedback from Agents 15 Social satisfaction
Dealing with others 16 Supervisory satisfaction
Experienced meaningfulness
17 Growth satisfaction
of the work
Experienced responsibility for
18 Motivation potential score
the work
 SV + TI + TS 
MPS = 
  × Au × FJ
 3 
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18. Data collection
First survey (T1) Second survey (T2)
Frequency Valid Percent Frequency Valid Percent
Firm A 68 29.7% 101 18.1%
Firm B 59 25.8% 182 32.7%
Firm C 24 10.5% 85 15.3%
Firm D 78 34.1% 189 33.9%
Valid Total 229 100.0% 557 100.0%
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19. Data analysis
Correlation among indicators of the questionnaire survey (n=229)
SV TI TS Au FJ FA DO EMW ERW KR GeS IWM PaS SeS SoS SuS GrS MPS
SV 1.00 Feedback Feedback Dealing Experienced Knowledge General Payment Social Supervisory Growth
from the from with meaningfulness of results satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction
TI ,251** 1.00
job itself Agents others of the work
TS ,172** ,197** 1.00
Au ,354** ,322** ,271* * 1.00
FJ ,193** ,264** ,256* * ,329** 1.00 **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) ;
FA 0.12 ,368** ,252* * ,316** ,449** 1.00 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed);
DO ,213** ,171** ,340* * 0.13 ,180** ,215* * 1.00 Listwise N=229
EMW ,239** ,300** ,233* * ,274** ,235** ,361* * ,136* 1.00
ERW ,159* ,212** ,230* * ,228** ,196** ,277* * ,143* ,382** 1.00
KR ,153* ,272** ,173* * ,253** ,411** ,332* * 0.06 ,369** ,336** 1.00
GeS ,155* ,187** ,225* * ,281** ,211** ,326* * ,131* ,604** ,370** ,282* * 1.00
IWM 0.08 0.07 0.10 ,141* ,221** ,197* * ,261** 0.08 ,247** ,152* ,177** 1.00
PaS -0.13 0.05 0.08 ,170* ,166* ,218* * ,245** ,215** ,217** 0.11 ,424** ,185* * 1.00
SeS ,225** 0.12 ,204* * ,345** ,343** ,187* * ,153* ,327** ,249** ,254* * ,442** ,173* * ,337* * 1.00
SoS 0.08 ,246** ,160* ,244** ,270** ,196* * ,177** ,232** ,304** ,216* * ,363** ,180* * ,221* * ,324* * 1.00
SuS 0.11 ,269** ,160* ,302** ,328** ,421* * ,163* ,313** ,331** ,354* * ,429** ,197* * ,440* * ,441* * ,433* * 1.00
GrS ,265** ,245** ,239* * ,523** ,345** ,344* * ,190** ,375** ,329** ,262* * ,464** ,177* * ,346* * ,397* * ,474* * ,479* * 1.00
MPS ,501** ,513** ,480* * ,792** ,710** ,478* * ,270** ,383** ,308** ,396* * ,319** ,212* * ,189* * ,432* * ,337* * ,384* * ,544* * 1.00
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20. Data collection (Cont.)
Factors Levels Factors Levels
Sex Female / /
Male
Age Under 30 Occupation Manager
30-40 White-collar worker
Above 40 Blue-collar worker
Primary school and junior
Educational level middle school Work experience Less 2 years
High school and vocational
school 2 - 5 years
College and University Over 5 years
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21. Results (occupation)
Mean
df Square F Sig.
Occupation 2 50979.39 16.47 .00**
Phase 1 290.6 0.09 .76
Occupatio
*Phase 2 19106.07 6.17 .00**
** P<.001
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22. Results (cont.)
N Mean SD F Sig.
SV M 78 4.95 1.01 12.46 .00**
7.00 W 122 4.3 1.26
6.50 B 357 4.21 1.19
TI M 78 5.09 1.13 14.65 .00**
6.00
W 122 4.67 1.29
5.50 B 357 4.33 1.15
5.00 TS M 78 5.81 1.1 19.5 .00**
W 122 5.61 1.12
4.50
B 357 5.03 1.25
4.00 Au M 78 5.16 0.94 22.8 .00**
3.50 W 122 4.6 1.07
B 357 4.24 1.19
3.00
FJ M
SV TI TS Au FJ FA DO EMWERW KR GeS IWM PaS SeS 15.42 SuS .00**
78 5.3 1.04 SoS GrS
W 122 5.16 1.1
Managers B 357
Blue-collar workers 4.68 White-collar workers
1.11
** P<.001
The JDS indicators of employees in different occupational groups in the second phase (T2)
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23. Results (cont.)
Psychological barriers of blue-collar workers
Occupation
Emerging role of female employees
Sex
Different psychological barriers for younger and older employees
Age
Significant differences between employees
Education
with and without higher education background
Work experience is a positive factor for the AMT implenentation
Work experience
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24. Conclusions
Technological and nontechnological issues should both be considered
during process innovation.
Work redesign and motivating employees according to the results of the
assessment to eliminate people’s psychological barriers is necessary for
successful process innovation.
Integrating Human to advanced manufacturing system !
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25. Acknowledgment:
The Elisabeth und Barbara Grammel-Studienstiftung
Graduate School Environment, Society and Global Change
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