Lean Production
1
CHAPTER I
1.
INTRODUCTION
Sociologists searching for a model form of work organisation which claims to improve organizational performance and gain competitive advantage, whilst improving workers‟ experience of the employment relationship, have encountered a difficult challenge. The high performance model is seen by a number of practitioners and researchers as the latest attempt to construct an alternative to Taylorism and lean production. Advocates of the high performance workplace (HPW) argue that it places greater emphasis on skill acquisition, opportunities to utilise skills, employee involvement and influence than lean work places.
Appelbaum et al. (2000), in their US-based study, report evidence of a positive correlation between HPW and job satisfaction. Ramsay et al. (2000), however, found, in their analysis of the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey, that while there was a positive association between HPW and gains in organisational performance, employees experienced greater levels of stress, insecurity and work effort. This negative pattern of employee experience was again evident in the 2004 WERS data and was also identified in
Danford et al.‟s (2005), study of partnershipand the HPW in the UK aerospace industry.
Notably, they argued that increased management control and decreased employee security were “inherent features of the HPW” (Danford et al., 2005, p. 239).
Jenner (1998) writes that Lean production system has been successful worldwide because it is a self-organizing and a dynamic system. With a flexible, creative and adaptive
2
structure that occur in a wide range of physical and biological fields. But the lean system is poised at a delicate balance between chaotic behaviour and order.
Managers have to use the principles as guidelines for transforming their own organization into flexible, lean, self-organizing structures. Since each principle must be adapted to the specific circumstances and
CHAPTER I
1.
INTRODUCTION
Sociologists searching for a model form of work organisation which claims to improve organizational performance and gain competitive advantage, whilst improving workers‟ experience of the employment relationship, have encountered a difficult challenge. The high performance model is seen by a number of practitioners and researchers as the latest attempt to construct an alternative to Taylorism and lean production. Advocates of the high performance workplace (HPW) argue that it places greater emphasis on skill acquisition, opportunities to utilise skills, employee involvement and influence than lean work places.
Appelbaum et al. (2000), in their US-based study, report evidence of a positive correlation between HPW and job satisfaction. Ramsay et al. (2000), however, found, in their analysis of the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey, that while there was a positive association between HPW and gains in organisational performance, employees experienced greater levels of stress, insecurity and work effort. This negative pattern of employee experience was again evident in the 2004 WERS data and was also identified in
Danford et al.‟s (2005), study of partnershipand the HPW in the UK aerospace industry.
Notably, they argued that increased management control and decreased employee security were “inherent features of the HPW” (Danford et al., 2005, p. 239).
Jenner (1998) writes that Lean production system has been successful worldwide because it is a self-organizing and a dynamic system. With a flexible, creative and adaptive
2
structure that occur in a wide range of physical and biological fields. But the lean system is poised at a delicate balance between chaotic behaviour and order.
Managers have to use the principles as guidelines for transforming their own organization into flexible, lean, self-organizing structures. Since each principle must be adapted to the specific circumstances and
References: Anderson-Connolly, R., Grunberg, L., Greenberg, E. and Moore, S. (2002), “Is lean mean? Workplace transformation and employee well-being”, Work, Employment & Society, Ashton, D. and Sung, J. (2002), Supporting Workplace Learning for High Performance Working, International Labour Organisation, Geneve. Appelbaum, E., Bailey, T., Berg, P. and Kalleberg, A.L. (2000), Manufacturing Advantage: Why High Performance Work Systems Pay Off, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Baron, R.M., Kenny, D.A., 1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considera- tions of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (6), 1173–1182. Bergkvist, L., Rossiter, J.R., 2007. The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs Bhasin, S., Burcher, P., 2006. Lean viewed as a philosophy. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 17 (1), 56e72. Bonavia, T. and Marin, J.A. (2006), “An empirical study of lean production in the ceramic tile industry in Spain”, International Journal of Operations & Production Browning, T.R. and Heath, R.D. (2009), “Reconceptualising the effects of lean on production costs with evidence from the F-22 program”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. CBI/TUC (2001), The UK Productivity Challenge: CBI/TUC Submission to the Productivity Initiative, CBI/TUC, London. CBI/TUC (2006), “High performance working”, CIPD factsheet (revised edition 2006), available at: www.cipd.co.uk Christian Hofer, Cuneyt Eroglu, Adriana Rossiter Hofer (2011), “The effect of lean production on financial performance: The mediating role of inventory leanness”, Danford, A., Richardson, M., Stewart, P., Tailby, S. and Upchurch, M. (2005), Partnership and the High Performance Workplace Ellis, S.C., Henry, R.M., Shockley, J., 2010. Buyer perceptions of supply disruption risk: a behavioral view and empirical assessment Florida, R, 1996. Lean and green: the move to environmentally conscious manu- facturing. Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F., 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unob- servable variables and measurement error Head, C. (1997), Beyond Corporate Transformation: A Whole Systems Approach to Creating and Sustaining High Performance, Productivity Press, Portland. Jenner, B. (1998), “Team membership and the experience of work in Britain: an analysis of the WERS98 data”, Work, Employment and Society, Vol Kenney, M. and Florida, R. (1993), Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and its Transfer to the US, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Lawler, E., Mohrmar, S. and Ledford, G. (1995), Creative High Performance Organizations: 27 Lloyd, C. and Payne, A. (2004), “The political economy of skill: a theoretical approach to developing a high skills strategy in the UK”, in Warhurst, C., Grugulis, I Lin, C., Chow, W.S., Madu, C.N., Kuei, C., Pei, Yu, P., 2005. A structural equation model of supply chain quality management and organizational performance Lloyd, C. and Payne, A. (2004), “The political economy of skill: a theoretical approach to developing a high skills strategy in the UK”, in Warhurst, C., Grugulis, I Luo, X., Bhattacharya, C.B., 2009. The debate over doing good: corporate social performance, firm marketing levers and firm-idiosyncratic risk MacDuffie, J.P., 1995. Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry. Menor, L.J., Kristal, M.M., Rosenzweig, E.D., 2007. Examining the influence of operational intellectual capital on capabilities and performance Paul Stewart, Andy Danford, Mike Richardson and Valeria Pulignano (2010), “Workers‟ experiences of skill, training and participation in lean and high performance workplaces in Britain and Italy”, Employee Relations, Vol 32 No 6, 2010. Ramsay, H., Scholarios, D. and Harley, B. (2000), “Employees and high-performance work 28 Sanjay Bhasin (2012), “Performance of Lean in large organizations”, Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (12) 349-357 Sohel Ahmad, Roger G. Schroeder (2003), “The impact of human resource management practices on operational performance: recognizing country and industry differences”, WERS (2004), Workplace Employment Relations Survey, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, London. Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T. and Roos, D. (1990) The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, New York: Rawson Associates. Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T (1996) Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth In