Essay on "Human Side of Change the American Workforce's Journey Through Lean Manufacturing"

Essay 25 pages (7064 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Human Side of Change, The American Workforce's Journey Through Lean Manufacturing

The modern day American workforce is one of the most globally developed and empowered workforces. The employees become organized in unions that protect and promote their rights. The individual staff members are able to select from several employment opportunities those that best serve their needs. Once on the job, they are subjected to training programs which improve their career paths and they are protected by the constantly developing employment legislations.

However, the American workforce has not always been this developed and protected. Its basis was set starting with the Industrial Revolution, as the innovations of the time such as the steam engine, textile production or the iron processing operations allowed entrepreneurs to emerge and open factories. With the massive need for workforce, millions of American citizens fled from the county side to the cities. The period represented not only the commencement of the modern workforce's path to evolution, but also the largest process of urbanization in the history of the United States.

As the people moved to cities in search of jobs to improve their lives, what they were faced with instead was different from what they had expected. Nevertheless, the workers of the day had limited ability and knowledge to compare their experiences and they had little power to negotiate better employment conditions. Under the circumstances, they were subjected to abusive treatments. Men were forced to long hours in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Women were forced to work alongside the men, performing jobs for which they were barely capable. Children were also employed to work in tough conditions and they were paid less than the adults. The direct result of the abuses has materialized in the creation of employment legislations, aimed at protecting the individuals. Children were as such banned from employment; lower standards for physical efforts were imposed on women; maximum working hours were set and minimum wage was created.

Starting from those days, the American workforce followed a continually evolutionary process, with several noteworthy moments. One important aspect in the evolution of the American workforce is constituted by implementation of lean manufacturing within the United States. The workforce and the industry initially rejected the process, but came to learn a tough lesson and eventually comprehended the need for efficient operations and continuous evolutions. The underlying idea behind lean manufacturing is that of completing the operational processes in a more efficient manner. The theoretical definitions of the concept differ and the efficiency is revealed through elements such as added customer value, decreased costs or lower inventory.

Despite the evolutions it had undergone before the creation of the lean manufacturing system, the American workforce was unable to embrace the method. It was nevertheless welcomed in Japan. Given this context, the current research strives to understand the reasons as to why lean manufacturing initially failed within the United States. The first step to be taken in answering the research questions is that of summarizing the findings in the available literature. As this step is completed, the paper moves on to presenting the research methodology to be used. This methodology is called onion ring and it is composed of a series of underlying elements, such as research approach, methodology or strategy. The process of data collection and analysis will then be presented and the paper comes to an end with a section on concluding remarks which will restate the most important findings of the research. The final section will also discuss the dual significance of the study.

2. Research Objectives and Research Questions

The aim of this research endeavor is that of assessing the characteristics of the American workforce and its rationale and motivation for rejecting the lean manufacturing production system. In order to construct a relevant and meaningful discussion, the first sub-objective is that of ensuring an easy and clear understanding of the concept of lean manufacturing. This would be completed through the presentation of several definitions of the concept, as they are presented in the specialized literature.

As the first objective is accomplished, the research endeavor moves on to completing the remaining sub-objectives. These are revealed in the form of the following research questions:

a) Why did it take so long for the American workforce to embrace the lean manufacturing production system?

b) What are the cultural differences between Japan and the United States and what role did they play in the different adoption of the lean manufacturing production system?

c) Why did William Edward Deming take his principles of lean manufacturing to Japan?

d) Why didn't the American industrial society embrace Deming's principles?

e) What role did the ego of the American workforce play in the rejection of the system?

It will be the role of the following pages to conduct the adequate research in order to create a context in which these questions can be answered.

3. Literature Review

Dan Blacharski (2010) defines lean manufacturing as "a manufacturing strategy that seeks to produce a high level of throughput with a minimum of inventory." He argues that the genesis of manufacturing improvements lay in the creation of the assembly line by Henry Ford, from which point on all economic agents strived to improve production. The author continues by arguing that lean manufacturing, as it is know today, emerged in Japan, under the traditional name of the Toyota Production System. It was designed by Sakichi Toyoda and it revolved around the replacement of the traditionally centralized inventory with smaller size inventories, located in various places along the assembly line. The smaller size inventories are called kanban and the result of their usage was increased production efficiency, as well as reduced waste.

Aside from these two applications, lean manufacturing is also useful in detecting product or system defects early on. The employees working the assembly line are able to instantly verify the product at their stage and in case they observe defects, the assembly line is stopped until the problem is remedied. Blacharski (2010) finds that lean manufacturing is highly similar to Total Quality Management (TQM), which is a highly powerful tool of increasing organizational performances within the industry. Total Quality Management integrates a series of strategic efforts which strive to increase organizational efficiency, impose standardization, solve problems, implement statistical control, regulate design and so on (Answers, 2010). Blacharski (2010) finds the resemblance between lean manufacturing and TQM in the fact that both techniques empower the employees on the assembly line to early on detect problems and as such solve them in a quick and efficient manner. Operational efficiency is increased when the decisions are taken at the lowest possible level, and this constitutes the rationale as to why the lean manufacturing production system empowers the employees.

Aside employee empowerment, the lean manufacturing technique is also characterized by the fact that it reduces inventory with the scope of reducing waste. The advocates of lean manufacturing argue that large size inventories are inefficient and create large levels of waste, which in turn lead to increased manufacturing costs. Lean manufacturing eliminates the large and inefficient inventories and it generally strives to eliminate all elements which do not create value for the final product.

A specific characteristic of lean manufacturing is that it requires strong and reliable relationships with the purveyors. In other words, the reduction of the inventory translates into the necessity to continually replace the smaller inventories and construct a solid partnership with the suppliers to ensure an easy and rapid flow of products and commodities. "Lean manufacturing strategies can save millions of dollars and produce excellent results. Advantages include lower lead times, reduced set-up times, lower equipment expense, and of course, increased profits. It gives the manufacturer a competitive edge by reducing costs and increasing quality, and by allowing the manufacturer to be more responsive to customer demands" (Blacharski, 2010).

The Lean Manufacture Website (2010) approaches the concept of lean manufacturing through the lenses of waste and states that lean manufacturing is a process by which economic agents strive to reduce the waste generated by their systems. The hope is that of generating zero waste and the followed purpose of the processes is that of adding more value to the final product, while decreasing the waste in the processes. Like Blacharski, the editors at the Lean Manufacture Website state that the origin of the lean manufacturing system lay in Toyota's Production System, but the approaches of the two sources vary in terms of the scopes of lean manufacturing. While Blacharski reveals the employee empowerment, waste reduction and supplier relationships, the editors at the Lean Manufacture Website argue only the standpoint of the waste reduction. In their view, economic agents recognize the fact that customers are only willing to pay for the stages of the manufacturing process which add more value to the final product. The rest of the stages are financially covered by the firm, which means that its overall profitability levels are negatively impacted.

Within the United States, the genesis of the lean manufacturing production system was set… READ MORE

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