The Automated Office - an Environment for Productive Work, Or an Information Factory?: Executive Summary
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A 11 10 a 4 fi 7 b 1 NBSIR 83-2784-2 A111D7 3^0 4 AD | The Automated Office - An Environment for Productive Work, or an Information Factory?: Executive Summary December 1983 C °A. & tr _ . •‘'•CAU O* KQG' nter for Building Technology 190 tional Engineering Laboratory Public Buildings Service ,1156 tional Bureau of Standards General Services Administration 33-2734-7 ashington, DC 20234 Washington, DC 20405 I 1933 c i -* 1 NBSIR 83-2784-2 THE AUTOMATED OFFICE: AN ENVIRONMENT FOR PRODUCTIVE WORK, OR AN INFORMATION FACTORY?: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Arthur Rubin U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Bureau of Standards National Engineering Laboratory Center for Building Technology Washington, DC 20234 December 1983 Prepared for: Public Buildings Service General Services Administration Washington, DC 20405 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler, Director • < . " ABSTRACT This report summarizes research that produced findings and recommendations on factors which influence automated office design. The subjects include: office design, office information systems, organizational factors, ergonomics, technology, and communications. Advances in technology, coupled with the explosive growth of office-based work have resulted in the automation of many offices. To date, technology has provided the major impetus for automation, with mixed results. Systems fre- quently do not meet the needs of the end-user because of the lack of appropriate planning. Design issues are particularly neglected during planning, resulting in problems with the visual, thermal, and acoustic environment in many offices. These effects are particularly detrimental since many office automation, management, and design experts agree that the quality of the environment is especially important in the electronic office - to offset the impersonality of many office tasks, and changes in work procedures resulting in limited social interaction with colleagues. These issues are summarized as they relate to the development of design guidelines and criteria for automated offices. The research was sponsored by the Public Building Service of the General Services Administration under GSA/NBS Interagency Agreement No. PBS-80-1. The state-of- the-art report that serves as the basis of this executive summary is available as a separate publication, NBSIR 83-2784-1, "The Automated Office - An Environ- ment For Productive Work, Or An Information Factory?: A Report On The State-of-the-Art. Key Words: acoustic and visual privacy; design criteria; ergonomics; lighting; noise; office automation; office design criteria; quality-of-life; space planning; VDT's (video display terminal); workstation requirements. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like first to express my particular appreciation to Erma Striner of the Public Buildings Service of the General Services Administration for her assistance, guidance, and unfailing enthusiasm for the work reported here. John Murray of the General Services Administration provided technical assistance on the project, and contributed to the success of several of the site visits performed as part of this study. Belinda Collins, Noel Raufaste, and Ted Hattenberg served as technical readers for this paper, and their sugggestions for revising early drafts are gratefully acknowledged. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work performed by Keith Mackley in producing the illustrations in this document, and the typing support provided by CBT's Word Processing Center. iv TABLE OF CONENTS Page 1. BACKGROUND 1 2. SCOPE, METHODS, AND GOALS OF STUDY 2 3. STUDY FINDINGS 3 3.1 OVERVIEW 3 3.2 EXPERIENCES WITH OFFICE AUTOMATION 2 3.3 TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES 4 3.4 ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT ISSUES 5 3.5 ERGONOMIC ISSUES 5 3.6 DESIGN ISSUES 6 3.6.1 Architectural Programming 6 3.6.2 Flexibility 6 3.6.3 Space Considerations 7 3.6.4 Wiring and Power Requirements 7 3.6.5 Local Area Networks 8 3.6.6 Specialized Spaces 8 3.6.7 Workstation Consideration 9 3.6.8 Lighting Issues 10 3.6.9 Acoustic Issues 10 4. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 12 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY 15 v 1 s . 1 . BACKGROUND At present, the Federal government owns or operates more than 10,000 buildings throughout the United States. A significant portion of this occupied space is devoted to office-based activities. In this respect the experience of the Federal government parallels that of the private sector. A recent study by the American Productivity CenterA/ indicates that about 53 percent of the adult workforce in this country is engaged in white-collar work, accounting for 70 percent of the total payroll of industry. (In 1979, the payroll figure exceeded $600 billion.) At the same time that the country is evolving into an informa- tion economy, the productivity of office workers showed a growth rate of only 0.02 percent per year for the period 1979 to 1981. As a means of increasing office productivity, many new products and systems directed toward automating office functions have been introduced into federal and private sector buildings. Initially, the office automation activities were directed toward improving the efficiency of routine clerical tasks, but the emphasis now is on the jobs per- formed by knowledge workers - the managers and professionals - who are consid- ered to be the "key" to increased office productivity, and more importantly, organizational effectiveness. The automation of clerical, professional and management activities has changed the nature of many of these jobs, and has already influended the design of offices. However, the potential design impli- cations of office automation are not well understood since they have not been the subject of systematic investigation. In order to effectively house the automated office, the Public Building Service of the General Services Administration (PBS/GSA) must be capable of specifying environmental, spatial, and other criteria to support the administrative and operational activities performed in federal buildings. The criteria now avail- able for this purpose are responsive to the traditional office, which is domi- nated by "paper work." The advent of office automation has changed the office environment in many ways, and design criteria and guidelines are required which are responsive to these changes. The long-term objective of the work reported here is the development of such criteria and guidelines. A necessary prerequi- site for developing the information required for criteria and guidelines is the identification of the characteristics of the physical environment which merit particular attention for the automated office. However, if design criteria and guidelines are to achieve their maximum usefulness, they must not be limited to the physical attributes of buildings and technology, but must be responsive to the particular needs of an organization and its staff. In the case of the auto- mated office, a major consideration is the desirability of taking advantage of technological advances as a means of increasing productivity, while at the same time responding creatively to its most important asset - the organizational workforce. Phase 1 of this project considers all of these issues, and the detailed findings appear in a state-of-the-art report (NBSIR-83-2784-1) A/ "White Collar Productivity: The National Challenge," The Productivity Center, Houston, Texas, 1983. 1 2. SCOPE, METHODS, AND GOALS OF STUDY The major objective of the study conducted by the National Bureau of Standards was to obtain information which could be used in the formulation of design guidelines and criteria for federal offices. We were particularly sensitive to the issue that if criteria are to be valid, they should be based upon "hard information" to the greatest extent possible, not merely opinion. That is, design recommendations should be supported by a body of information (preferably based on research findings), which explain the rationale for them. Several approaches were used to determine the state-of-the-art of office automation and design. One approach was the review and analysis of several hundred published articles from technical and design publications, and dozens of books. This process entailed the examination of data bases covering several disciplinary areas, since the relevant information is widely scattered. Among the topics covered were: Architecture, Interior Design, Ergonomics, Management and Organization, Office Systems, Telecommunications, Electrical Systems, Lighting, Acoustics, Information Management, and Environmental Psychology. A "case study" approach was used to gain detailed information concerning the introduction of automation in Federal and private organizations. The U.S. Navy Facilities Command and the Office Systems Section of the Department of the Army were visited, and interviews conducted concerning office automation activities. Three site visits were also conducted at organizations which had automated office activities (The Boeing Corp., The Sheraton Corp., and Citicorp). The purposes of these visits were: 1) to gain insights about the processes used to plan and implement office automation systems, and 2) to obtain information concerning what did (and didn't) work, and why. Extensive in-depth interviews were conducted with various users and planners at each location. Personal and telephone interviews were conducted with design and office automation professionals concerning their opinions about present design impli- cations of office automation, the adequacy of available information, and their forecasts