EN
In the international production technology development project described in this article, the work environment factors of future production systems, both physical and psychosocial, were not prioritised or seen as a natural part in the development process. It seemed the partners involved in the project regarded these factors as interfering with the main objective, i.e. developing new pro¬duction techniques. The authors describe and analyse some of the experien¬ced problems when trying to integrate work environment factors in the pro¬ject. For example, problems such as the habit of doing things the way they always have, the lack of a holistic picture where short term perspectives have precedence and the problem of context significance is dealt with. Interestin¬gly enough, while these problems were observed in the project, the partners did not oppose using improved tools involving work environment factors early in the development process. Thus there is a challenge for the future to develop a more holistic model for development of new production technolo¬gy - a model in which work environment design of future production systems can be considered at an early stage as well as industrialisation in an internatio¬nal context can be rendered more effective.