AbstractThis article considers the development of Computer Aided Production Management as a function of paradigms of work organization. CAPM design has been heavily influenced by manufacturingfashions—U.S. models of centralized production, and now, Japanese manufacturing methods. CAPM implementation is an important site for further technological innovation. To make CAPM workable in local conditions, users have to expend considerable effort in system customization. Case studies demonstrate how these systems are reconfigured when the standardized structures and rigid procedures of CAPM fail to fit users' own idiosyncratic manufacturing circumstances. Innovation therefore continues into the implementation stage of a technology's developmen