=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2398/Paper12
|storemode=property
|title=Robotics and Quality: A Sociomaterial
Analysis of Assembly Line
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2398/Paper12.pdf
|volume=Vol-2398
|authors=Masood Rangraz,Lena Pareto
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ecis/RangrazP19
}}
==Robotics and Quality: A Sociomaterial
Analysis of Assembly Line==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2398/Paper12.pdf
Proceedings of STPIS'19
ROBOTICS AND QUALITY: A SOCIOMATERIAL
ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY LINE
Masood Rangraz1[0000-0003-3506-2327] and Lena Pareto2 [0000-0002-5996-7668]
12
School of Business, Economics and IT, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden
masood.rangraz@hv.se
lena.pareto@hv.se
Abstract. Automation of manufacturing industry has been on agenda for nearly
five decades now. Today, the affordability and efficiency of automated solutions
make them increasingly relevant to Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs).
Their continued survival depends on the quality of the end product and as much
as any SME might intend to increase its business potential, it can’t afford to lose
quality by the time it turns to automated solutions. Here, we focus on an assembly
line soon to leave its manual processes to automation. It is a case from a manu-
facturing plant, and we ask what happens to quality once the automation solutions
are in place? Exploiting the five notions of Sociomateriality, we explore the
changes in the socio-technical configurations of the workplace each of which, we
discuss, are consequential for quality. We show while quality is an ultimate busi-
ness goal for any SME; it is first and foremost a practical problem at the shop-
floor. We discuss how quality originates from socio material configurations and
distinguish the process-quality from product-quality while attending to working-
life quality. We address the challenge of translating the quality which once was
in hands, tools, and the relationship among them, to the quality of exact calcula-
tions of automated solutions.
Keywords: Quality, Sociomateriality, Automation, Robot, SME
1 Introduction
Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) comprise 99% of all businesses within the
European Union (European Commission, 2015). According to International Federation
of Robotics (2018), the adaptation of robots in ‘general industry’ -excluding automotive
and electronics- has been rather low. The trend, however, is changing. Having an op-
portunity to automating their processes, many SMEs nowadays consider advance auto-
mated solutions. Recently, automation without robotics has been the sheer force to
changing work arrangements (see Nof, 2009; see also Bainbridge, 1983; Lee, 2008;
Parasuraman and Riley, 1997). Today, robotics as an important subset of automation
(Nof, 2009), pushes the automation forward and is expected to arrange work differently
from the way it was approached and appreciated in the manual operations. In this re-
gard, it is plausible to assume that many SMEs will face the infrastructural turn com-
pelling them to accommodate the consequences of robotic transformation.
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In the literature on the effect of robots into the workplace, many studies focus on the
changing dynamics of work practices (Hancock, 2013; Hoc, 2000), the way the practi-
tioners react to robots (Balfe & Wilson, 2018; Brain, 1998), the challenges in develop-
ing interfaces (Miller & Parasuraman, 2007; Calhoun et al. 2018; Thrun, 2004); and
issues on safety (Haddadin et al. 2008; Zinn et al. 2004). In Information Systems (IS),
several studies have examined the introduction of robots in the workplace. Sergeeva,
Huysman and Faraj (2015) looked into the space of work environment in a hospital by
studying the transformative effects of robotic technology into the collaborative work
practices. Another example is Mettler, Sprenger and Winter (2017) who introduced a
new method to map the attitudes of end-users towards service robots. Aleksander
(2017) also considered the overall effect of robots at work and suggested clarifications
regarding the confusion in branding the use of robots at workplace as cognitive robots
or intelligent robots. He asks for the re-evaluation of the way we perceive robotic tech-
nology and talks about the necessity for education and re-skilling of humans. We can
also find related research on the way automation/robotization changes work arrange-
ments in other domains closely related to IS literature. One notable example is the study
by Barrett, Oborn, Orlikowski and Yates (2012) where they draw on two theoretical
perspectives (Suchman’s plans and situated action and Pickering’s’ mangle of prac-
tice) to explain the reconfigurations of boundary practice at a hospital pharmacy. They
raise concerns and responsibilities of three occupational groups with robotic technolo-
gies and show how robotic solutions is consequential for all the people engaged in the
work at pharmacy leading to disruptions in skills, jurisdictions, status, and visibility.
The literature on issues, challenges and effects of robotic solutions into the work-
place is ample. However, despite some important works on all aspects, there seems to
be no sign of how eventually quality, as a sum of quality of product, process or working
life, plays out in the disrupted work-environments. In this paper, we focus on the man-
ufacturing industry, where we study the newly automated assembly work. We are par-
ticularly interested in the relation between product quality and process quality in the
manual process compared to the automated one. Our site of study is an industry where
according to Chiasson and Davidson (2005), there is a lack of ‘serious’ studies in In-
formation Systems. We carry out the research before, during and after introducing ro-
botic solutions. In doing so, we ask, what happens to quality once the automation solu-
tions replace the tools and machinery use? How does the relation between different
types of quality emerges at the time of automating the assembly work? By answering
these questions, we explore quality and investigate if and how the old ways of defining
and promoting quality of production is preserved or persevered in today’s automated
processes.
The purpose of the study is to challenge the widespread belief and conventional as-
sumption that automated solutions lead to better quality. We focus on quality for whom
and quality of what? We are particularly interested in problematizing the betterment of
different aspects of the claim on product, process or working-life as the modern facili-
ties takes over the shop-floor. The underlying aim of the research is to provide an un-
derlayer for the future investigations of innovative automated solutions such as co-bots.
In other words, the present account is an introductory part of a larger plot where we
eventually aim to show how tools, machinery, automated solutions and collaborative
©Copyright held by the author(s) 124
Proceedings of STPIS'19
robotics carry distinctive weight on quality. All in all, we intend to discuss the issue of
quality with a theoretical lens that captures sociomaterial practices at the assembly work
whether they originate from a human-tool, human-machine or human-automated con-
trol configurations. By attending to both sides on equal measures, i.e. the human and
the technical, and most importantly the practice that emerges from their inter-actions
(Orlikowski, 2007), we believe Sociomateriality works as a lens through which various
dimensions of quality at the shop-floor come to foreground.
In the following section, we outline Sociomateriality as a theoretical perspective,
present the methods used and describe the empirical case. Then, we offer a socio-
material analysis of the result section. At the end, we show how the five notions of
Sociomateriality help to explore the issue of quality for product, process and working-
life.
2 Five notions of Sociomateriality
The theory of Sociomateriality (Orlikowski, 2007) has gained considerable attention in
studies of organization and work, being particularly useful when the intricate intra-re-
lation between the social and the material is of major concern. Since our aim is to study
different socio-technical reconfigurations of an assembly before and after automation,
we find the approach suitable. Sociomateriality is, as its name might suggest, attends to
social and the material aspect of quality; a concept built upon the intersection of tech-
nology, work and organization and attempts to understand how human bodies, spatial
arrangements, physical objects, and technologies or in one word all that is material are
entangled with language, action and interaction or in one word all that is social (Jones,
2014; Leonardi, 2012).
There is no consensus on the definition of Sociomateriality (Jones, 2014; Leonardi,
2013) and many have pointed out that it might be a new label for existing popular
streams of research such as socio-technical systems (STS) (cf. Barley, Meyerson, and
Grodal, 2011) or actor-network theory (ANT) (cf. Contractor, Monge, and Leonardi,
2011). There might be similarities between STS, ANT and Sociomateriality. However,
we believe notions such as ‘entanglement’, ‘interpenetration’, or ‘embodiment’ receive
unique treatment under sociomateriality. Such notions, within manual work arrange-
ments, have never been attended, we argue. Further, Jones (2014), maps different layers
of the Sociomateriality and asserts that the five key notions of materiality, inseparabil-
ity, relationality, performativity and practice point to different dimensions of Socio-
materiality. These five notions are central in our understanding and as a result in taking
advantage of Sociomateriality modifying our direction to categorize, analyse and dis-
cuss the dynamic of the workplace. The five notions help us go beyond the “ideational
realm” and not to study quality solely as a “mental activity” but through the “socio-
material practices” that the quality is enacted (Carlile, P.R., Nicolini, D., Langley, A.,
Tsoukas, H. 2013, p. 2). We, briefly, take a close look at the five notions.
Materiality is the key notion built into the term Sociomateriality. By materiality,
depending on the context, we might refer to concepts such as “artefacts, the tangible,
machine, nonhuman, and technology” (Jones; 2014, p. 907). Yet, there is an
Edited by S. Kowalski, P. Bednar and I. Bider 125
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inconsistency and ambiguity in referring to it. Its significance, apparently, lies in its
capacity to counter-balance the absolute orientation towards the physicality of technol-
ogy. According to Leonordi (2010), what we consider as nonhuman, machine or IT-
artefact should not necessarily suggest tangible objects. Data, codes, algorithms also
have their own side of materiality.
Inseparability highlights the interdependency of social and material. In theoretical
terms, both ‘social’ and ‘material’ refer to separate concepts but in practice it is difficult
to distinguish them separately. This is obviously a complicated assertion. On the one
hand, social and material have an “entangled, inseparable, intertwined, intermingled,
interpenetrated, and fused” relationship (Jones, 2014, p. 898). On the other hand, the
relationship is intra-action suggesting that they neither interact mutually nor impact
each other unidirectionally (Jones, 2014). The main point here is to focus on mutual
constitution and avoid investigating them separately from each other.
Relationality, similar to the previous notion, engages in an ontological discussion of
Sociomateriality. Being relational means that the existence of social (agency) and ma-
terial (agency) depends on each other i.e. material grows its attribute and capabilities
in coming together with social and vice versa (Jones, 2014). Moreover, relationality
hints a symmetrical agential relationship (Jones, 2014). However, as much as symmet-
ricity might imply the existence of equal or balanced agency emerging from social or
material, it does not necessarily mean that they are of similar essence.
The key term in understanding performativity is enactment. Consider an utterance
that does more than informing. Once an utterance such as ‘come’ is expressed, depend-
ing upon audience and situation, it perhaps occasions acts of requesting, inviting or
greeting, for example. In other words, it enacts performances or as Jones (2014) asserts
it provides “performative accounts of social/material entanglement” (p. 899). In the
previous notion, we mentioned that there are no prior properties attached to social and
material before their engagement. In performativity, similarly, creation of reality is vis-
ible only when social and material meet each and not before.
Jones (2014) maintains that we can acknowledge the notion of practice, for the most
part, “as the enactment of performativity” (p. 899). It means that, similar to previous
notion, the creation of reality or the enactment of performances does not happen in a
vacuum. It accompanies some mental or bodily activities, states of emotions or moti-
vational knowledge; all or part of which makes up the notion of practice.
3 Empirical setting
The industrial context we took an interest in is a plant with a crankshaft assembly line
undergoing process change. For over 20 years, manual assembly procedures ran the
assembly line making up the various arrangements of work that support and facilitates
its production. It is a small plant in a rural area which operates from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.,
manufacturing crankshafts for various end-products such as chains-saws, or leaf blow-
ers. The cost of machinery, automation equipment such as control systems or industrial
robots along with other facilities in the plant -both for the production and assembly-
exceeds millions of Euros to the point that it fits into a definition of an SME (European
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Commission, 2015). It is a huge enterprise for the community considering the fact that
the city in which the plant is located hardly reaches two thousand residents. The plant
is a small subdivision of an industrial group with a work-force of 13000 employees
worldwide. The main and the only responsibility of the plant is to manufacture a small
but crucial crankshaft for various outdoors power products. Considering the indispen-
sable value of the crankshaft for the wide range of the production line across other
plants, it makes all the sense for the company to look for automation solutions in the
assembly of the crankshafts too.
The focus is on this particular line where the reconfiguration of the work practices
in three phases: before, during, and after the automation is plain and evident. As a work-
in-progress study, however, the after-the-automation part is yet to be added. Data col-
lection has so far been carried out for six months. The study is ethnographically oriented
using in-plant observations and semi-structured in-depth interviews as main inquiry
methods. So far, there have been two periods of intense researcher engagement; ap-
proximately one month of study of the manual production prior to the robotic imple-
mentation, and then 2 weeks of study during the actual implementation of the robotic
solution. The data gathering strategies include non-participatory observation in manu-
ally run production line and the video-recordings of various human-tool, human-device
and human-machine configurations during these weeks. During the robotic implemen-
tation, observational studies were conducted for two weeks during which installation
of the new system took place. During this time, there were experts in automation con-
sulting, instructing and working together with the plant employees. We observed the
installation process and the first trials with the automated process. We were allowed to
listen to in-action discussions among experts and employees and had the opportunity to
ask questions when they were not fully occupied. There are also over 15 hours of video
recordings of the manual process. The analysis is based on data obtained from video
recordings and observation only and does not rely on interview data.
The manual process of assembling different components comprise three stations.
Each station comes with different configurations of technology and human. The tech-
nology of assembling different parts of the crankshaft, based on which all the three
stations were established had remained the same almost for two decades. The three
stations include three assembly-line workers, a press-machine and some rudimentary
tools like hammers and vice and instruments for measuring the assembled product. The
work consists of attaching different parts of the crankshaft manually at the first station
and letting the press-machine join them by exerting pressure. A heavy-duty work-bench
vice, a sledgehammer, a reverse plier and analogue tolerance meter are used to do
straightening at the second station. The third station is used for packing and wrapping
the end-product into containers. Diagram 1 shows the overall set-up which comprises
the human-machine configuration in station1 and the human-tools/device one in sta-
tions 2 and 3.
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Proceedings of STPIS'19
Fig. 1. Old set-up (manual process)
Table 1. Manual assembly line process
1. Manually carrying 5 parts in separate packages
2. Manually collecting each part separately
3. Manually evaluating each part
Station1
4. Manually assembling loosely five parts next to each other
5. Manually inserting the loose cluster of parts into press-
machine, and press together
6. Manually straightening with the help of a hammer and a
reverse plier
7. Manually validating assembled product with help of
Station2
measuring devices
8. Repeat 6 and 7 until product manually validated or dis-
posed of
9. Manually packaging the products in the containers
Station3 10. Manually storing and transporting the containers with
help of carriages
The new technology, however, means disrupting the old-fashioned procedures.
Equipped with the cutting-edge industrial robots, the new technology brings forward
new automation options to the assembly line. In diagram 2, we have illustrated the au-
tomation solutions equipped with 6 industrial robots which will soon take over the en-
tire assembly line. Similar to the old set-ups, the modern set-up is divided into 3 sta-
tions.
All the stations, contrary to the old-setup, are surrounded with glass windows and
wired cages. The work consists of feeding station 1 with five different parts (blue pen-
tagons indicating inward movement into station 1). Here, different robots grasp differ-
ent component, joining them together while relying on the press machine in the middle
of station 1. Still unvalidated, the product is handed over to straightener machine at
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Proceedings of STPIS'19
station2. After being straightened up to a pre-determined degree, the robot at station 3
lets the quality-control check the straightened piece. If validated, the laser machine
generates beams to certifying it with a unique serial number. If not, it ends up in the
defects. The certified ones out of the laser machine get packed in the container, waiting
for other straightened, validated and certified pieces to store up. The containers, al last,
find their way out with the help of the last robot when they are fully packed.
Fig. 2.Modern set-up
Table 2. Automated assembly line process
1. Manually carrying 5 parts in separate packages
2. Manually feeding each parts to separate entries
Station1 3. Automatically assembling five parts next to each other
4. Automatically inserting the loose cluster of parts into
press-machine, and press
5. Automatically straightening with pre-programmed algo-
rithm
6. Automatically validating assembled product with preset
Station2
values
7. Automatically certifying assembled product with laser
stamp
8. Automatically packaging the products in the containers
Station3 9. Automatically storing and transporting the containers with
help of carriages
The major obstacle for the automation solutions is the straightening step. In both pro-
cedures; the manual and the automated one, Station 2 takes on the duty of straightening.
Both procedures differ from each other several ways. While workers are involved di-
rectly with and responsible for the validation in the manual procedures, the same task
is pre-programmed with a state-of-the-art robot responsible for straightening while
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Proceedings of STPIS'19
workers only act as indirect operators. In addition, the manual process is highly de-
pendent of handicraft where every worker carries out the straightening, one at a time,
with different tools and devices at their disposal. The new machine, however, replaced
the workers’ dexterity as well as the tools with an algorithm performing the straighten-
ing in five batches. In the manual process, this step was the bottleneck for the assembly
line and consequently a serious hinderance for the production line. It is also worth men-
tioning that the way the new machine actually does the straightening is black-boxed for
the workers- now acting as operators instead of assemblers- as they only have access to
its parameters through control panels and can check its status through monitors. com-
paring two processes, it proves to be substantial how much change depends on the dy-
namic of the straightening step.
4 A sociomaterial analysis
A quick comparison between the traditional and the automated set-ups is not all about,
and should not reduce the occasion of change to, the change of machinery. The extent
and consequence of change requires in-depth analysis. Having introduced the setting,
the layout and the process, we now use the aforementioned five notions of Sociomateri-
ality to analyse the accounts of this study. This section is meant to break down the
descriptive account into analysable chunks in order to further clarify the changes in
practice from a traditional assembly line into an automated one. In so doing, we dissect
the “sociomaterial practices” and the way “objects, artefacts and materiality actually
matter in organizational activity” in both set-ups (Carlile, P.R., Nicolini, D., Langley,
A., Tsoukas, H. 2013, p. 2). This is, however, a partial and non-exhaustive examination
and tends to bring forward those aspects of practice consequential in discussing the
concept of quality at the shop-floor.
4.1 Materiality
There are obviously differences between the physical characteristics of machines,
tools and devices in the one hand and with the robotic solutions on the other. If we take
materiality in the sense of physical characteristics, we see that, for example, the inter-
face between the human agent and the technical agent is not the same in both set-ups.
Manual solution requires close proximity and direct contact while the interaction with
the automated solutions happens through the proxy of panels and screens. The conse-
quence, then, is a rearrangement of work to accommodate the materiality of robotic
solutions. For example, analogue data become digital and close sources of data become
sources through proxies of monitors. Furthermore, no worker has ever seen codes or
algorithms in manufacturing process in the traditional set-up. The digital characteristics
of the output and process has been all non-existent. The kind of data that the staff has
grappled with then has always been in an analogue form. The prospect changes in the
wake of robotic solutions. What the workers are supposed to deal with are lines of codes
and bars of graphs on panels now. In other words, they deal with the digital or the
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representational reality of the quality and do not have any tactile association with qual-
ity as they lose touch with the parts and the final product.
However, it is not just the physical characteristics of the product that could be
thought of in terms of materiality (cf. Leonardi, 2010). The change in the layout in both
set-ups corresponds to the notion of materiality, too. Strictly speaking, there is enough
room for the staff to move in the space separating the stations in manual set-up (diagram
1). The available space is not just the necessity or the limitation for the work done in
the traditional set-up. Rather, the space can be regarded as an affordance that facilitates
the work in a traditional setting of assembly. However, with the robotic solutions in
place, no space has been saved for human agents to move between the stations.
Moreover, three screens and four panels support the interaction between the staff
and the robotic solutions. This way the format of work practices shifts to adapt to what
is afforded by the screens and the panels. The close proximity in the manual is a neces-
sity to manually assemble the end product, but this contact is also the source of the
handicraft skilled judgment of product quality assurance and the basis for an effective
manual straightening process. In the automated process they have to rely on the robotic
system (codes and algorithms through interfaces) and read information about quality as
they are translated into numbers on the screens.
4.2 Separability
In both set-ups, there is a persistence existence and continuation of human actors who,
not only, form the social aspect of the work practices but also appear to be inseparable
from its materiality. That is to say, whether in close proximity or through proxy, the
materiality of both set-ups is understandable on account of the “social, human, people,
organizations, and work” (Jones, 2014, p. 897). The physical characteristics, the inter-
face, the codes and the charts become relevant and known by the help of the social
dimension. On this regard, Leonardi (2013, p. 62) asserts that:
“objects or phenomena do not have agency; people attribute agency to them when
they use equipment, machines, formulae and other various apparatuses in an attempt to
explain the machinations of the universe through the imposition of causality”.
In our argument on quality, the social dimension gets primacy as the quality gets
initiated by the help of it. It seems appropriate to conclude that quality is primarily a
social concept and then a material construct.
Furthermore, whether engaged with machinery or rudimentary technology such as
pliers, the staff, in the traditional set-up, are well aware of the fact that their perfor-
mance depend on and can be seen in connections with the technology visible to every-
one. Now comes the new set-up, the new layout and the new processual routine to get
used to. The dynamic of their practices with the new technology changes, but the fact
that their performance is inseparable from the technology is a constant assumption
while they no longer regard their performance how they were used to.
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4.3 Relationality
It is deceptively easy to think of technology as determining performance when one
thinks of the assisting role of technology in the performance of work, especially in the
context of an assembly line where performance of work is so closely tied with the ap-
plication of technology. To clarify the matter further, take the press machine, for exam-
ple, which is responsible for the part of the work that could not be done by human
actors. With the traditional set-up, the practice of using the press-machine is carried out
directly. In the set-up with the automated solutions, however, the interaction happens
indirectly; via lines of code sending operational signals for its activation. In both cases,
the performance is dependent on but not determined by materiality. Rather, perfor-
mance, in both cases, is “a relational product of their [human and technology] intra-
action” (Jones, 2014, p. 911).
There is also an issue of flexibility that comes to light when we think of the notion
of relationality. The implication here could be seen with having similar stations for both
processes but not the same division of work routines. In both set-ups, the whole process
of assembly line is divided into three stations. The work routine in each set-up, how-
ever, is not similarly divided. The assembly line with automated solutions needs to
proceed from station1 to station3 constantly and in tandem. The workers could only
engage with the whole set-up. This was not the case with the work arrangements in the
old set-up as the staff could work on one station alone for a certain period without
having to move to another station or even care for the whole set-up. That is, there are
work practices uniquely associated with each station in the traditional set-up which, in
return, supports control and flexibility of the entire assembly line. The work practices
in the modern one, however, become relevant when we consider working with the entire
set-up where control and flexibility is not as similar as the old one since there is, no
longer, any work associated with single stations. It might seem controversial to perceive
quality of a process with an unlike understanding of control and flexibility.
4.4 Performativity
This notion could be best exemplified with the validation and certification process
where the enactment of reality of quality takes place. Unlike the validation step, which
is present in both set-ups, there is no certification step observable in the old set-up. With
automatic solutions, a new machinery is responsible for certifying the end-product with
a laser machine, creating a reality that has not been existent in the assembly line before
(diagram 2). Moreover, the validation step itself changes into another shape. In the work
with machinery, the staff used to validate the state of the previous step in the process
either by looking at or feeling the components or the assembled product at their finger-
tips. They would perform the validation step once they had put the parts together and
carried out the straightening. In case of a problem, they could, trusting their experience,
look for the reason and remedy it no matter if the problem had originated from the press
machine or further; from the manufacturing line.
With the robotic solutions, the staff create a reality of validation different from the
one in the old set-up. The new reality comes with the help of representational models
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Proceedings of STPIS'19
and charts highlighting the properties of the parts and the products. By checking the
ongoing process through panels, the staff could validate each step in different manner.
As the number of panels indicate, every step in the new process is under continuous
observation. However, given their digital reality of validation, the staff do not need to
keep track of the panels continuously, since the validated data can be stored, accessed
and examined in later occasions. Quality, in terms of validation, is the responsibility of
the workers, managed by their experience and delivered by their engagement with ma-
chinery, tools and devices. Quality, in terms if validation and certification, is the re-
sponsibility of robotic solutions which operate under the supervision of the workers and
reflected digitally on charts and graphs.
4.5 Practice
According to Jones (2014) what we consider as a sociomaterial practice goes beyond
envisioning what people do and includes factors such as bodily movements, affect, or
motivation accompanying such practices. To clarify the matter, in terms of bodily
movements, the staff in the old set-up were required to sit at the first station, stand in
the second, and move in the third one during one shift. With the automatic solution in
place, the work practices are not bound to the bodily movements, rather the staff can
perform their task at ease! Better ergonomics comes with automated solutions.
Regarding affect and motivation, we can also compare two set-ups with differences
between repetitive tasks, levels of responsibility, stressful mishaps and scheduled work
periods. Each comparable item has a significant influence on the mental states of the
staff. To analyse the notion of practice, our data gathering includes in-depth interviews
that are ongoing at the moment.
5 Discussion
The five notions constitute what we called and employed as a Sociomaterial lens (Fig-
ure 3). Each notion could be traced back to different philosophical paradigms; for in-
stance, Materiality goes back to Heidegger’s and McLuhan’s writings (Ou, 2016) and
separability’s origin to Barad’s take on quantum physics (Orlikowski, 2007). Detailing
each notion’s background is outside the scope of this study while it is important to
acknowledge that all of them, under the roof of Sociomateriality, receive a generous
treatment and as a consequence modify our understanding of ‘entangled’ or ‘imbri-
cated’ practice (figure 3). This might also explain the reason we encountered overlaps
in analysis under several notions as each notion relies on, regulates while simultane-
ously supports the insights brought up by other notions.
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Fig. 3. Sociomateriality as a lens on practice
As we have shown, station 2 was responsible for the straightening step in both set-ups
consisting of either ‘simple physical technologies’ (cf. Leonardi, 2013) or automated
solutions. Quality in process and product arguably relies on what the station 2 delivers.
In the traditional assembly line, quality is not limited to the properties of the product,
rather it includes a processual narrative entwined with the properties of the product;
with consequences on the work-life quality. In its simplest and uneducated form, the
change in quality is often reduced to man-made and automatically made polemic.
Change of quality is more than that. The automation processes deliver product quality
while at the same time strips away old narrative substituting it with a one that deals
with whole set-ups instead of a single station. This is how the assemblers turn into
operators as they required to grapple with quality through panels and screens from now
on.
As said, the quality goes also beyond the polemic of hand-made, machine-made or
robot- made. The narrative on quality is not restricted and could not get simplified
through the fact that a product is, no longer, made by dexterity of some worker. The
narrative of quality takes issues of flexibility, control, validation/certification steps to-
gether with the all parameters that influence the mental states of the staff. In light of the
definition by Orlikowski and Iacono (2001), and Iivari (2017) on ‘IT artefact’, we con-
sider automatic solutions as an ensemble of ‘IT artefacts’ as they are not only bound to
physical characteristics but include procedural elements, lines of codes, user documen-
tations and other unseen yet consequential characteristics with the ability to process
information and mediate work (cf. Wiegel, 2010).
With the help sociomateriality, we compared different issues with the new IT artefact
in place while making it consequential to quality in new ways where eventually we
believe that quality is a sociomaterial property. By investigating the change process,
we meant to make visible its effect on quality at the shop-floor. We, however, have
reservations for discussing it any further since as an ethnographically-oriented research,
©Copyright held by the author(s) 134
Proceedings of STPIS'19
we are gathering more data with interviewing different stakeholders including workers,
managers and consultants. We can then provide the reader with more analysis and dis-
cussion - more than what have already- hoping to achieve a broader view on the way
quality is managed and plays out in the modern set-up.
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