Skilled maintenance trades under lean manufacturing
Evidence from the car industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11489869 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ron Roberts (0000-0002-2509-7238, Queen's Management School Queen's University Belfast Belfast UK), Niall Cullinane (0000-0003-1972-276X, Queen's Management School Queen's University Belfast Belfast UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 103-124 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Technology Work and Employment (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-1072 • E-ISSN: 1468-005X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ntwe.12256 |
| OpenAlex | W4292878343 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
This article explores how skilled maintenance trades have fared under lean automotive manufacturing, a cohort of workers relatively neglected in the literature. Historically, such trades possessed a distinct ‘craft consciousness’ derived from apprenticed‐acquired skill, autonomy in job execution, strict job boundaries and relative occupational status and prestige. The article assesses how lean has impacted this craft tradition over time, drawing on a case study of one UK car plant to assess its trajectory across three decades. Four different skilled cohorts—electrical, mechanical, control engineers and die maintenance fitters—are examined to gauge respective trends in skill, autonomy, demarcation and status. While the study finds variation in experiences across different trades, the general trend points to a deterioration in work conditions on all four benchmarks of assessment. The article concludes by inferring implications for the future trajectory of skilled trades considering recent accounts provided in Industry 4.0 narratives
Automotive industry · Autonomy · Business · Craft · Industrial organization · Lean manufacturing · Narrative · Operations management · Political science · Prestige · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · History · Labor Movements and Unions · Marketing
The Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training
The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation
From industry 4.0 to society 4.0, there and back
Exploring Working-Class Consciousness
Contradictions of the Labour Process, Worker Empowerment and Capitalist Inefficiency
Old wine in new bottles? Revisiting employee participation in Industry 4.0
Working in the end times
When should workers embrace or resist new technology
Maintaining change
All they lack is a chain’
Redefining the Toyota Production System
Rethinking country effects
Food for thought
Automation, skill requirements and labour‐use strategies
Automation and the future of work
The limits to‘Japanisation’—Just‐in‐Time, labour relations and the UK automotive industry
Maintenance work, maintenance skills
A safer, faster, leaner workplace? Technical‐maintenance worker perspectives on digital drone technology ‘effects’ in the European steel industry
The subversive craft worker
Upskilling, Deskilling or Polarisation? Evidence on Change in Skills in Europe
Robots and Organization Studies
Management Whipsawing
Lean Enough
Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age
Transient craft
Stressed out of my box
Work restructuring and changing craft identity
Apprenticeship in the 'Golden Age
Commitment at Work and Independence From Management
Lean Production, Worker Empowerment, and Job Satisfaction
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |