Lean Production, Conditions of Work and Worker Commitment

Abstract

In the search of remedies to the industrial crisis of the Western world, lean production has been promoted as the proper answer to productivity problems. Furthermore, this mode of production is claimed to offer challenging and rewarding work at the level of production, thus fostering the reinvolvement of the rank and file. The arguments put forward in this article speak in favour of the opposite conclusion. This is done by discussing the economic logic behind lean production as well as the technology materializing from this logic that is, the characteristics of the production paradigm itself. According to the conclusion coming from this discussion, lean production will mean loss of autonomy and further intensification of work. Within such a context resistance will appear as a more probable reaction than creative involvement.

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