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Management article
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Reference no. 97607
Published by: Harvard Business Publishing
Published in: "Harvard Business Review", 1997

Abstract

Lean production, which has succeeded in both improving quality and lowering costs, has become the competitive standard for automakers worldwide. But a debate continues over how that system treats workers--a debate that concerns not only economics and engineering but also values and ideology. In this article, Michael Maccoby, a consultant based in Washington D.C. who specializes in organizational culture and leadership, reviews two books on General Motors'' factories: Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century, by Ruth Milkman; and Just Another Car Factory? Lean Production and Its Discontents, By James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley, and David Robertson. Maccoby argues that companies can raise worker morale and productivity by showing workers true respect and by educating them in business perspective. General Motors may have failed to accomplish this at its Linden, New Jersey and Ingersoll, Ontario plants, but lean production has succeeded at Saturn and NUMMI. As more industries switch to lean production, workers will come under more pressure but companies will also have new opportunities to win their commitment to business goals. Car factories perform much better when workers understand the business and join in the effort to improve it.

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Abstract

Lean production, which has succeeded in both improving quality and lowering costs, has become the competitive standard for automakers worldwide. But a debate continues over how that system treats workers--a debate that concerns not only economics and engineering but also values and ideology. In this article, Michael Maccoby, a consultant based in Washington D.C. who specializes in organizational culture and leadership, reviews two books on General Motors'' factories: Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century, by Ruth Milkman; and Just Another Car Factory? Lean Production and Its Discontents, By James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley, and David Robertson. Maccoby argues that companies can raise worker morale and productivity by showing workers true respect and by educating them in business perspective. General Motors may have failed to accomplish this at its Linden, New Jersey and Ingersoll, Ontario plants, but lean production has succeeded at Saturn and NUMMI. As more industries switch to lean production, workers will come under more pressure but companies will also have new opportunities to win their commitment to business goals. Car factories perform much better when workers understand the business and join in the effort to improve it.

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