Constructive Learning: A New Approach to Deploying Technological Systems into the Workplace

High-technology production and information systems are becoming increasingly common in the workplace. Those who work with them need formal and knowledge-intensive skills that match the way these systems work. The traditional methods of shopfloor education, learning-by-doing from other skilled operators, or from the equipment supplier, are risky, expensive and inefficient. Classroom training does not work well either. We describe two-day constructive learning workshops designed to help introduce MRP, the widely used computer-based production and inventory management system, into a major transportation maintenance facility. MRP is notoriously difficult to install successfully. These workshops worked well and reduced the operatives' learning period by upwards of a year.