First in, first out: A case study of lean manufacturing's "success" in North America's automobile industry

This paper describes a three-year case study (2003-2005) of General Motors' (GM) Lansing Grand River Assembly (LGRA) plant, the first new vehicle assembly plant in North America to be built on GM's Global Manufacturing System (GMS), a globally integrated lean manufacturing model. The paper is an ethnographic journey to understand the LGRA's perceived initial "success" with lean manufacturing. In the study, LGRA's economic performance is related to two Participant Propositions, one connecting performance to the plant's rural workforce and the second predicting performance declines based on the transfer of "other" workers to the plant. Findings from the case, overall, contribute to the literature on lean manufacturing and participatory work processes, describing how organizational and institutional processes beyond the control of a single plant can possibly lead to a breakdown in participatory structures, creating risks for the long-term sustainability of lean manufacturing approaches.

[1]  W. Warner,et al.  The factory in the community. , 1946 .

[2]  V. L. Allen,et al.  Automobile Workers and the American Dream , 1955 .

[3]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Outline of a Theory of Practice , 2020, On Violence.

[4]  Y. Sugimori,et al.  Toyota production system and Kanban system Materialization of just-in-time and respect-for-human system , 1977 .

[5]  Michael A. Cusumano,et al.  The Japanese Automobile Industry: Technology and Management at Nissan and Toyota , 1986 .

[6]  Arunoday Saha.  Basic Human Nature and Management in Japan , 1990 .

[7]  Joseph J. Fucini,et al.  Working for the Japanese: Inside Mazda's American Auto Plant , 1990 .

[8]  Elizabeth K. Briody,et al.  Explaining Differences in Repatriation Experiences: The Discovery of Coupled and Decoupled Systems , 1991 .

[9]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[10]  L. Fine.  "OUR BIG FACTORY FAMILY": MASCULINITY AND PATERNALISM AT THE REO MOTOR CAR COMPANY OF LANSING, MICHIGAN. , 1993 .

[11]  Thomas Li-Ping Tang,et al.  Learning from Japanese Transplants and American Corporations , 1995 .

[12]  L. Graham,et al.  On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu: The Japanese Model and the American Worker , 1995 .

[13]  James W. Rinehart,et al.  Just another car factory? : lean production and its discontents , 1997 .

[14]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[15]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  Remade in America : transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems , 2001 .

[16]  Cynthia Karen Swank.  The lean service machine. , 2003, Harvard business review.

[17]  Michael Agar.  An Anthropological Problem, A Complex Solution , 2004 .

[18]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  The Toyota way : 14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer , 2004 .

[19]  Steven P. Vallas,et al.  Theorizing Teamwork under Contemporary Capitalism , 2005 .

[20]  George Gaskell,et al.  A theory of risk colonization: The spiralling regulatory logics of societal and institutional risk , 2006 .

[21]  Steven P. Vallas,et al.  Empowerment Redux: Structure, Agency, and the Remaking of Managerial Authority1 , 2006, American Journal of Sociology.

[22]  Steven E. Jones,et al.  AMERICANISM AND FORDISM , 2007 .

[23]  Peter Berg,et al.  Joint Responsibility Unionism: A Multi-Plant Model of Collective Bargaining under Employment Security , 2009 .