A Study on the Toyota Production System Under the 35 Hours Work a Week

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The main results of this study are following.(i)The French 35 Hours Work Laws (Aubry laws) cannot be regarded only as the laws reducing working hours in order to promote work-sharing, because they have marked a turning point in the history of French labor relations in the following two senses. First, the laws give the firms the flexibility in work organization and work force adjustment. Second the laws have established the majority principle about the management-union agreement, because the agreement had to be signed by the union (s), seconded by the majority of employees.(ii)About putting into action the legal 35 hours work at the French carmakers, important are the followings. First, management-union relationships are ameliorated and stabilized after their obligatory negotiation to fix the conditions of the 35 hours work. Second, because of the annualization of the working hours, overtimes, confirmed only at the end of the year, give often the employees collective and/or individual t … More imes off in lieu, so that the wage is not function of real working hours. Third, the annualization allows the firms to organize the work and adjust their labor force in the flexible manner. Therefore, the increase in the labor cost, caused by the reduction of legal working hours, can be absorbed by the economy of scale, gained by "24 hours and 7 days a week" run of a factory.(iii)Toyota in France (TMMF) also has concluded the management-union agreement resemble to that of Renault and Peugeot SA, and is able to enjoy the flexibility in work organization and labor force adjustment. In the domain of labor relations, TMMF is ready to do the same things as French carmakers do, and its labor relations are adapted to the French situation. On the contrary, its Toyota Production System is not put into action in its real sense. In fact, the "Just-in-time" and "Jidoka" have been installed, but the kaizen activities are on the way to be introduced. Whether its employees are involved in such activities depend on its human resource management and training of its employees in a Toyota's way. Less