LEAN PRODUCTION - THE END OF HISTORY

One of the most influential books that has been published in recent ye ars is the MIT study The Machine that Changed the World by Womack, Jon es and Roos (1990). The book combines detailed empirical comparisons w ith bold and sweeping assertions. The Japanese management system or 'l ean production', Womack et al. argue, is not only the world's most eff icient system for manufacturing cars. It is the one best way of organi zing all kinds of industrial production, featuring both dramatic incre ases in productivity and qualitative improvements in working condition s. According to the MIT team it is predestined to become the standard global production system of the twenty-first century, and they contend : 'Lean production is a superior way for humans to make things. It pro vides better products in wider variety at lower cost. Equally importan t, it provides more challenging and fulfilling work for employees at e very level, from the factory to the headquarters. It follows that the whole world should adopt lean production, and as quickly as possible' (Womack et al., 1990: 225). The purpose of this article is to challeng e this view of lean production as an omnipotent system and unequivocal blessing. Starting with a discussion of the industrial limits of lean production, I then turn to the success story of the 1980s - the drama tic expansion of Japanese auto transplants in North America. The socia l preconditions for this process, largely overlooked in the MIT study, are emphasized, before proceeding to an analysis of the highly ambigu ous working conditions at these new plants. The transplants have attra cted many American workers, but the relentless production regime has c aused growing disillusionment among employees and increasing resistanc e from union locals, which was demonstrated by the five week strike at CAMI in September-October 1992. Finally, I discuss current developmen ts inside Japan, where automakers face a severe recruitment crisis. In Japan, both unions and environmentalists criticize the JIT-system her alded in the MIT study, and car manufacturers have started to design p lants according to new principles. For many reasons lean production wi ll not be the end of history!