Doing lots of research today on lean production from automakers to hospitals to public schools. Lean Production is a management model and production process that makes workers work harder and faster for less. This is done in several ways, most notably by de-skilling the job (making it more robotic and allowing more skilled workers to be easily replaced with less skilled workers) while simultaneously multi-skilling by increasing the responsibilities of the job, increasing competition through the use of temporary or part-time or contract workers, increasing flexibility by managers in setting hours and assigning tasks, and the implementation of team models on workers so they are responsible for being partners in making their jobs more efficient (meaning, they are responsible for finding ever new ways for them to work harder in a shorter period of time). The spread of lean production across the United States has been like the metaphorical frog in slowly boiling water. It makes me wonder if the advent of Taylors Scientific Management and Fords Assembly Line had the same effect on their own times: impacting a particular industry first and then slowly rippling out into other industries, occupations and professions without folks even realizing what was happening? I also cant help but think that a strong reason why some nurses and teachers havent caught on to how the boss class has expanded this capitalist logic of brutal competition from the factory floor to the hospital and school is because they dont want to see themselves as workers but as professional employees. The lesson we should be learning is that whether your workplace is public or private, your job blue or white collar, your boss does not make a distinction - all they see is a cost.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:52:19 +0000