lean production

  • UAW Contract’s Hidden Surprises for Skilled Trades

    As United Auto Workers talks with the Detroit 3 go down to the wire—contracts expire at midnight tonight—workers are wondering what hidden surprises may await them in a tentative agreement. At Chrysler, skilled trades workers are finding big problems concealed in the last concessions contract, as management thins their numbers to the bare minimum and gets barely trained production workers to take on their dangerous work.

  • As Hospitals Go ‘Lean’ and Squeeze Workers, Unions See Potential for Organizing
    Kim Moody
    Mar 15 2011 - 8:44am

    Today’s hospitals are big business, run like factories and clustered in growing corporate systems. Health care is a growing, consolidated industry with billions flowing into its coffers and desperately in need of skilled labor. It’s the kind of organizing target U.S. unions have not seen for some time.

  • 'This American Life' on Auto Workers: A Hack Job

    What a disappointment was last week’s This American Life. This episode of the popular one-hour show on public radio was a snapshot of how the auto industry could have been saved—if only executives had learned from the innovations pioneered at the NUMMI plant in California, a joint Toyota-GM experiment created in 1985.

    I have been a big fan of This American Life.

  • Toyota and the Myth of Quality

    Two myths have surrounded Toyota’s rise to dominance in the global auto industry: (1) Toyota is about quality for the customer, and (2) Toyota’s quality and productivity are forged on respect for its workforce.

  • Lean Production Is Alive and Well in Mexico

    Chris Kutalik reported here recently that there’s something called the “lean community,” which exists to (1) spread the gospel of lean production and (2) make sure the name of lean is not blasphemed. “It’s not about speedup! Workers love lean production!”

  • Will the Real Lean Production Please Stand Up?

    When members of the “lean community” (their actual phrase) took issue with my recent claim that big hotel chains' embrace of lean management techniques are a contributing trend to high injury rates for housekeepers, it's hard not to say the debate is on, brothers and sisters.

  • Housekeepers' Giant “Hope Quilt” Puts Hotel Job Injuries in Spotlight
    Chris Kutalik
    Oct 16 2009 - 5:38pm

    Hotel housekeepers are on a seven-city tour with a gigantic “hope quilt” that memorializes injuries on the job. It's also a symbol of their determination to rally union and non-union hotel housekeepers against harsh working conditions and workplace injuries.