In recent years, the outsourcing of a variety of different activities has been more commonly observed in the coal mining industry. This is connected with employing workers by external companies. These practices are not necessarily perceived as good ones by mines’ employees because they may influence their remuneration directly or indirectly. Firstly, as external employees treat work in mining company as a source of a quick income. Therefore, external companies often calculate their employees compensation not based on working time (i.e. hours) but on the basis of a specific, accomplished task. Such employment is called piecework, whereas the workers employed in this kind of system are called output workers/piece workers. Therefore, to receive higher wages in these companies, employees carry out their tasks faster and more efficiently. This, in turn, can affect the standards of workers employed by the mining company. In addition, outsourced workers are often retired miners, so the costs incurred by employers are significantly lower. In addition, in order to not to lose the retirement benefit, they work for a much lower rate. On the other hand, outsourced work can be done in a hurry (on a piece rate), which is not conducive to compliance with safety regulations, therefore mine employees may feel unsafe. This article aims to present how mine employees assess outsourcing underground works. In order to achieve this aim, a survey was carried out among employees of one of the coal mine companies in Silesia. Participants of the survey were randomly chosen among underground miners employed at one mine company. The survey was anonymous which obviously might have influenced respondents’ honesty in answering. The survey was carried out in several mines of the chosen company. In some of them the survey was carried out online and in the remaining ones it was filled out on paper. Analyzing the survey results allowed for a better understanding of the reasons of the disapproval of outsourcing underground works. This, in turn, may be used for better human resources management including, in particular, planning an incentive based pay system.
In the assembly industry, almost all components are outsourced or transferred to other
parties, in order to meet the need for supply. This is referred as outsourcing of production.
The outsourcing of assembly product components is based on a relationship model
between the contractor and the industry. However, there is no relationship or communication
pattern between the contractor or supplier and the assembler. Hence, in order to
accelerate line production and overcome problems with assembly components, the communication
path is shortened by providing a direct communication channel between the
assembler and the supplier or contractor, in order to communicate any problems that arise
during the assembly process by internal communication within the industry. The purpose
of this study is the design and development of a web-based software application electronic
data interchange (EDI) that can be used as a tool for communication between the assembler
and supplier. The EDI application provides formal communication between the assembly
industry and the contractor providing the components or parts needed in the assembly process.
The main purpose of using EDI technology is to help the assembler to communicate
the relevant documents to suppliers quickly, accurately and efficiently. The documents to
be communicated are in the form of reports or claims, and are related to non-conformities,
errors and component difficulties arising during the assembly process. This research novelty
is providing direct communication between assembly and supplier by using EDI application
that can give contribution in manufacturing area so it can accelerate the line production in
assembly.