Telecooperation Systems in Engineering Companies Supplying the Metallurgy Industry: The Experience of the OrgTEch Project

The primary goal of the ORGTech Project is to improve the cooperative work processes within and between two design offices and one steel mill through the introduction of a telecooperation system. The ORGTech approach is based on integrated organization and technology development (OTD) as a participative and evolutionary approach to support changes of work systems. In this paper we first introduce the OTD approach and explain the Phases of the ORGTech Project. The outcomes of the first phase, the requirements analysis are then described and followed by an overview of cooperation tools and systems which will be tailored to the specific situation of the engineer offices and their major customer, the steel mill. We explain the next step of the project which consists of introducing the prototypes and organizational change in pilot teams, concentrating on the pilot team where groupware components are introduced.