RAPID: Lean Production in Auto Plants

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。制造业将从经济危机中走出来，需要能够应对全面质量管理(TQM)持续改进和及时库存(JIT)系统中最后一秒交付零部件的压力的工人。目前对精益汽车生产中的工人的了解仅限于对1990年前新工人的创业研究，很少有关于压力的研究。该项目将通过解释经济危机和技术变革期间有经验的汽车工人在精益生产中面临的压力来填补这一空白。该项目使用灵活的访谈来探索工人的身份，以了解他们如何看待和适应精益生产。调查人员将采访3家日本汽车厂和3家美国汽车厂的150名工人及其在美国的供应商。三种理论将被用来考察员工如何看待工作和压力。首先，管理压力大的精益生产会带来很大的压力和阻力。其次，精益生产在种族和性别多样性的基础上创造了团队团结。压力较小的成功的精益团队来自地位平等的人之间的接触，这些人在一个由领导者提拔的小团队中成功地完成了相互关联的任务。然而，团队接触也可能导致约会甚至离婚。第三，压力来自社交网络中与家人和朋友的隔绝。这项研究的更广泛的影响超越了制造业，因为JIT和TQM正在渗透到医疗和其他服务行业。由于美国不会在低技能和低工资的基础上与外国劳动力竞争，它将不得不不断地将工人转移到上游，通过精益生产制造高价值的产品。了解工人如何在精益生产团队中工作，同时处理TQM和JIT的压力，对于未来设计更有效的培训系统至关重要。这项研究将有利于这一准备工作，并有助于对不能再从事这一艰苦工作的工人进行再培训。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Manufacturing industries will emerge from economic crises with a need for workers who can handle the stresses of continuous improvement in Total Quality Management (TQM) and last-second delivery of parts in Just-in-Time Inventory (JIT) systems. Current knowledge of workers in lean auto production is limited to start-up studies of new workers before 1990, and little of that focused on stress. This project will fill this gap by explaining the stress on experienced autoworkers in lean production during economic crises and technological change.This project uses flexible interviews to explore the identities of workers in order to understand how they view and adjust to lean production. The investigators will interview 150 workers in 3 Japanese and 3 American auto plants and their suppliers in America. Three theories will be used to examine how workers view work and stress. First, lean production with high management pressure causes both high stress and resistance. Second, lean production creates team unity out of racial and gender diversity. Successful lean teams with lower stress emerge from contact between people of equal status successfully working on linked tasks in a small group that is promoted by leaders. However, team contact may also lead to dating and even divorce. Third, stress comes from isolation from family and friends in social networks. The broader impact of this research goes beyond manufacturing because JIT and TQM are penetrating the medical and other service industries. Since the US will not compete with foreign labor on the basis of low skills and wages, it will have to continuously move workers upstream in making high value products through lean production. Learning how workers function in lean production teams while handling the stresses of TQM and JIT will be critical for designing more effective training systems in the future. This study will benefit that preparation, and also help retrain workers who can no longer do this hard work.