TOP (Technology, Organization, and People) modeler is a macroergonomic tool that helps manufacturing companies identify the organizational changes needed when new technologies are being considered for their process.
Established in 1991, the multi-year, industry-focused, ten-million dollar research program developed the core knowledge and operational framework of such a tool.
The effort was a massive collaboration between the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Digital Equipment Corpo-ration, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, Hughes Electronics, and General Motors. ;
The collaboration focused oncontent,structure, and user interface for a tool to help managers bring benchmarked knowledge to bear on these unstructured strategic decisions.
TOP-MODELER consists of a modular, replaceable knowledgebase and analytical methodology, coupled to a friendly user interface that allows users to tailor, manipulate, and apply the core knowledgebase to accurately capture and solve each unique strategic or operations problem