Concurrent Engineering in the Automotive Industry: Prospects for Worker Participation

Abstract Concurrent engineering practices designed to shorten product development lead time are making their way into the North American automotive industry. This paper reports the results of case study research undertaken to determine whether these practices provide new opportunities for auto workers and their unions in decisions about technology design and training. At the plant level in particular, it was found that the company's efforts to integrate design and manufacturing operations provided production workers and plant-level union representatives with new opportunities for substantive input in process design, earlier exposure to the new product, and significant control over the pre-Iaunch training program for skilled trades and production employees.