New Production Arrangements: The Totally Flexible Cage?
This paper examines the management of innovation and change in two different operating units on a single site of a UK Division of a high technology US-owned multinational corporation. The transformation of work in changing from `production for stock' to `production to order' is analysed, and the process of changing established patterns of work (as a brownfield operation), and designing new production arrangements from the outset (as a greenfield operation) are contrasted and compared. The key features of Just-in-Time and Total Quality Control principles are identified and the extent to which they represent real inovations in production is assessed. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the flexible specialisation debate through reappraising the empirical evidence, and concludes by rejecting the view that modern production arrangements signal the general enhancement of working life through a reversal of the division of labour, increased worker autonomy and greater employee involvement in production.
Year of publication: |
1989
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Authors: | Dawson, Patrick ; Webb, Janette |
Published in: |
Work, Employment & Society. - British Sociological Association. - Vol. 3.1989, 2, p. 221-238
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Publisher: |
British Sociological Association |
Saved in:
Online Resource
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