Statement on Work Reorganization: Responding to

Lean Production

"Our union has always understood and been committed to an efficient and productive workplace producing
quality goods and providing quality services. New technology and new work processes, we recognize, include the
potential for creating a more prosperous society, more leisure time, and improvements in our standard of living."
This publication is the CAW statement on Lean Production discussed and endorsed by the CAW National
Collective Bargaining and Political Action Convention, May 1993. It builds on our earlier statement on work
reorganization and addresses managerial efforts to introduce lean production. While the previous statement
challenges the false promise of a "partnership" with management, the current one emphasizes the need to
strengthen our own agenda around workplace change.
In sectors as different as auto and airline, electronics and rail, aerospace and fish processing, there is a common
drive to what is called lean production. And in workplaces as diverse as plants, offices, rail yards, mines and
hotels our members feel the pressure and stress of a production system whose logic is quicker, cheaper and
faster.
This statement provides some background on lean production: What are its central features? What are the code
words? What are its objectives and its likely consequences? It is not a rhetorical rejection of workplace change
nor of co-operating with management, instead it is a studied criticism of a particular set of workplace changes
and a specific managerial agenda.
Our union has always understood and been committed to an efficient and productive workplace producing
quality goods and providing quality services. New technology and new work processes, we recognize, include
the potential for creating a more prosperous society, more leisure time, and improvements in our standard of
living.
But this potential never was, and is not today, automatic. It is conditional on the ability of working people,
through their unions, negotiating how these changes are implemented and how they shape our lives. Today, we
face the challenge of "lean production", which represents an attempt to limit these changes to the needs of
management.
It reaffirms our goal of developing an effective working relationship with management based not on any
superficial partnership, but on a negotiated compromise that addresses both worker and corporate concerns.
And it is clear about what goals we bring to that relationship - a more democratic workplace with more worker
involvement and control and better working conditions. As this statement makes clear, lean production is an
obstacle to achieving those goals. Good job design, a focus on the pace of work and production standards, the
content of job and ergonomics, the placement of injured and disabled workers, deepening the skills workers
have, more say over technological change and more training that provides for broader worker development are
our measures of progressive workplace change. Pursuing these objectives will bring us into conflict with
managements who are unwilling to modify their lean demands.
This statement will be the basis for more discussion, education and action. It is part of a broader effort to raise
issues and advance our union's agenda for workplace change.
In solidarity,
Basil "Buzz" Hargrove
President
CAW-Canada

Introduction:
In 1989 our union passed its Statement on the Reorganization of Work. We were one of the first unions to adopt
a national policy statement critical of workplace changes which came under the heading of team concept. More
than anything else the statement challenged the idea of a partnership between labour and management. The
statement was intended to resist a managerial offensive.
Management's objective was to gain union support for a change in the way things are done in the workplace; a
campaign to make workers' goals the same as those of the company. In other words, management still wants
workers and managers to collaborate in competition against other workers. The CAW statement argued instead
for a working relationship with management that recognized the independent interests of workers, making it
clear that:
That statement is as important now as it was then. But some things have changed. Companies have gone beyond
the rhetoric of partnership. They are more aggressive in pushing their workplace agenda. They are more
conscious of the changes they are pursuing. And companies are more confident in their ability to dramatically
change production and the way we work. In the meantime, we too have changed. We have gained experience
with new ways of working (such as CAMI) and with different managerial efforts to change our workplaces.
This document serves as an update. It is meant to complement the CAW Statement on the Reorganization of
Work. While the previous statement focused more on the ideology of partnership and new managerial
techniques, this statement addresses changes in jobs and production processes.

"We reject managerial efforts, under whatever name, which jeopardize workers' rights, undermine workplace
conditions and erode the independence of the union."

Competition
"Competition for the sake of competition has dominated, and everything was sacrificed, including wages,
working hours, profits, subcontractors, dealers, the lives of Japanese workers and employment opportunities of
workers abroad...
Trade unions cooperated in this desperate competition for a share. Working hard, they lost their vision about for
whom and what growth should be achieved."
Haruo Shimado
Prof. Keio University
JAW Report


Lean Production
Soon after we passed our statement a book entitled 'The Machine that Changed the World' reported the findings
of a five year, $5 million (US) worldwide study into auto production organized by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). In a short time the book became an international business best-seller with an appeal far
beyond the automotive sector.
The study reported two dramatic conclusions. The first was that the best Japanese companies could produce
with "half the amount" required by North American or European producers. They produce a product with
considerably less of everything -people, material, resources, space, etc. - than anyone else. And second, they did
so primarily through the effective management of production and human resources. On this basis, MIT argued
that a new production system called lean production was changing manufacturing on a worldwide basis. The
claims in auto are now being extended to other sectors of the economy.
Lean production emerged as management's model for changing workplaces and work practices. Traditional
workplaces are "robust," relying on buffers of all kinds -inventory, space, large rework areas, banks between
operations, and extra workers. The objectives of lean production aim to strip away these buffers, reduce costs
and involve workers in the efforts to do so.
Lean production's twin objectives are to reduce production time (lead time) and labour costs. In the end that
means taking labour out of production and time out of labour. Despite the popularity of the book, the lean
analysis is wrong on two accounts: first, in terms of what accounts for the so-called superiority of lean
production and second in suggesting that it is a "win-win" situation for workers and managers.
The differences between lean companies and other companies are not found in developments such as teams,
suggestion programs, small group improvement activities, multiskilling or the like. The biggest differences are
found in practices such as the massive outsourcing (contracting out) of parts and final assembly. The
outsourcing is done with low wages, insecure employment and fully using production capacity. Other differences
are in technical developments such as the ease of making products (simple designs, fewer parts, quick
assemblies). Most important, in terms of the labour process, is work intensification - tight work cycles, long
hours, regimented work practices and significant managerial flexibility to use labour as it sees fit. It is here that
lean production ends up.
Lean Workplaces
Lean production gets applied to workplaces through programs of quality management, waste elimination and
continuous improvement. Whether it is TQM (Total Quality Management), Excellence!, CIP (Continuous
Improvement Process), Synchronous Manufacturing, TPM (Total Production Maintenance) or whatever; whether it
is in the railway, auto, airlines, fishing or other sectors; whether it is production workers, skilled trades,
technical, service or office workers, the objective is to get lean production.
For example:
Quality Management means more than designing and producing the highest quality product or service.
It has become a catch-all term for all the cost-cutting and intensification that goes with lean
production. Quality ends up focusing on the cost of quality (can we do it without inspectors?). 'Building
quality in' gets workers to treat each other as suppliers and customers rather than as co-workers; and
'quality consciousness' ends up in new absentee programs and significant attendance demands.
Waste gets defined to mean anything which is not absolutely essential to production. The idea is to get
to the lowest level of all inputs - equipment, material and workers. Company activities are divided into
two major types, those which add value and those which don't. Value added activities are those which
directly change a product or service into its finished form; everything else is non-value added. All
costs associated with non-value added functions are waste and are to be eliminated, whether it is
buffers between operations, slack time, waiting time, walking space at workstations or more generally
indirect labour such as the skilled trades.
Much of the waste reduction effort involves a detailed look at jobs, work processes and work areas to rid them of
non-value added operations and to achieve cost-cutting, job reductions and a tighter work effort. The more
sophisticated companies launch a two-stage attack on non-value added activities. Those activities that can be
immediately eliminated, and those that currently are necessary but can be eliminated if the production process is
changed.
TQM - Total Quality Management
A study of 100 British companies by Chicago-based A.T.Kearney found just one-fifth believed their TQM had
produced tangible benefits...
Among 500 U.S. firms surveyed by Arthur D. Little, only a third reported their TQM programs had a significant
impact on their competitiveness...
The Total Quality Muddle Report on Business Magazine November 1992
Continuous Improvement eliminates waste by changing the methods of production. Continuous
improvement requires the personal involvement of workers. At issue is not only what we do, but what
we know. Continuous improvement relies on workers' contributions through schemes such as
suggestion programs or small group activities geared to problem solving. The goal is to get workers to
support cost-cutting, to accept reducing jobs and to participate along with management in changing
work processes and practices.
Under lean production even the ground rules of employee involvement have shifted. In earlier programs there
was a more subtle, even more open approach where it was recognized that, at least initially, workers would try
to improve their working environment and working conditions.
Now the focus is clearly on "what benefits the company", not what benefits workers.
Redefining Employee Involvement
"Emphasis on what benefits the company. No democratic elections about what to work on... Management guides
what Small Group Improvement Activities are doing.... Not morale building QC Circles"
David W. Buker, Inc. & Associates
(Consultants), Just In Time
"Employee Groups are focused on the resolution of specific issues which serve to limit the performance of the
company. As these issues are addressed they are effectively 'cashed in'..."
Spectrum Management (Consultants)
Synchronous Manufacturing
Examples of Non-Value Work
Walking
Bending and stooping down
Searching for parts or tools
Reading schedules
Moving parts and materials
Repositioning parts during assembly
Reworking
Inspecting
Repairing
Handling the same part more than once
Putting parts into storage bins
Taking parts out of storage bins
Removing parts from excessive protective wraps
Handling cardboard and trash
Adjusting
Reaching excessively
Holding
Obtaining and disposing of air tools
Entering and exiting the vehicle during assembly Grasping
Disposing of parts
Twisting (body motion)
Source: Chrysler 'Continuous Improvement'



Categorizing Waste
Waiting:
Worker waiting for machine to complete cycle
Worker waiting for material
Worker waiting for machine set-up or repair
Source: General Motors 'Synchronous'
Workers are under stress from fast paced, intense, repetitive work while at the same time preferred, off-line jobs
are eliminated and time is squeezed at every workstation. The attack on waste, the aim of low-cost quality and
continuous improvements, means more and more control over workers' time and activities, a faster workpace,
longer and more irregular hours. As well, jobs are more standardized and the workplace is more regimented.
Getting To Lean
In many workplaces management is unilaterally driving the changes. Gone are the collaborative appeals to
workers. There is little attempt to gain union participation. Instead, swat teams parachute into the workplace or
work area and leave with cost reductions whether or not these reductions are reasonable or can be maintained in
the long term. Workers end up with changed jobs and a reorganized workplace.
In some workplaces local unions are being asked to participate in a process of change. Usually a supposedly
neutral consultant comes in and management says "there is no agenda," only the "need to change". Before long
there are orientation and training sessions, steering committees and design teams, special project groups or
task forces and all headed toward lean production. Programs are often designed before the union is approached.
Unions are brought in to tinker with the details.
Whatever the particular management approach - unilateral action or union involvement - the focus is on changing
production and the way we work. To respond we need to focus on three things.
1. On the objectives of lean production.
2. On the various management techniques and structures of participation.
3. On the changes in production methods and systems.
The goals of lean production are:
To reduce the number of jobs.
To reduce labour hours.
To intensify the work effort.
To eliminate non-value added parts of the work.
To increase management control.
To undermine the independence of the union.
Even if we are successful in resisting a partnership with management, the goals of lean production can still be
achieved through changes to production methods. In responding to lean production we have two sets of tasks.
One is taking on the ideology of the system. The other is responding to the changes in the production
process. One without the other will be ineffective.
From Push to Pull Production
Take for example the shift from Push to Pull production. Moving from batch production to flow production or
one-at-a-time production is a central element of lean or "synchronous" production.
The move from Push to Pull seems like a common sense approach to production. Why produce more than what is
immediately needed by the next process? Why have inventory as a buffer in the system? But to maintain the
continuous flow required by one-at-a-time production requires that the time for each job has to be
standardized. Set times for each job often eliminates personal time. There is no time to take a breath. The move
from Push to Pull means idle time quickly becomes a target of the change and must be eliminated for the system
to work. What appears as a shift in the technical system (Push to Pull) ends up changing the social relations of
production -in this case personal time for workers and flexibility that benefits workers.
A similar point can be made about eliminating buffers. The idea that production can occur without problems is
make-believe. That production lines or offices can operate without hitches and hiccups, or be defect-free, is
fantasy. It is simply an impossible goal. In workplaces something is always going wrong and there are always
problems to contend with. If this is the case, then how does an operation function without buffers? It doesn't.
Changing Production Methods
Take straight lines and turn them into U-shaped cells.
Move from a department organization to a product based organization.
Move from 'push' to 'pull' production.
Integrate operations by eliminating banks and buffers.
Tie sub-assemblies directly to the line.


What lean or synchronous production successfully does, is change the buffers in the system. Instead of the
buffers being stock between operations, the buffer in lean production is our personal time. Lean production
does not do away with buffers, but the buffers become less visible. Workers are the buffers. Overtime is the
buffer in lean production. What starts as a seemingly neutral and commonsense change to production ends up
as an assault on collective agreement provisions such as eliminating advance notice for overtime or voluntary
overtime.
Union Direction
It is important for us to address the changes associated with lean or synchronous production.
These issues confront unions and labour movements around the world. There are national debates within unions
and different unions argue in favour of different responses. Some argue in support of collaboration in the hopes
of forging a coalition with business, others have grudgingly gone along in the face of what is seen as inevitable.
Some have just decided to get involved. Others have resisted involvement while workplaces have been
reorganized just the same.
Since lean production operates in different ways it has to be addressed in different ways - from the day to day
experience of the job to the logic of competitiveness. How we strengthen and rebuild the union in the workplace
and how as a union we respond to the changes in the workplace are two sides of the same coin. The CAW
strategy is to oppose lean production and work to change it through negotiations. This could mean involvement
and participation but it always means resistance and change.
We have to challenge the ideology of lean production - the partnership with management and the drive
to make workers compete against each other.
We have to focus on the changes to our jobs and the production system.
And we have to respond to new managerial techniques and workplace structures (teams, rotation, etc).
Working in Japan
One Japanese survey notes that only 4.5% of Japanese would advise their children to take a job in the auto
industry.
Reasons against working in Japanese Auto Industry:
Pay too low for intense work 42.8%
High work intensity 40.5%
Onerous shift systems 40.1%
Much work on holidays and overtime 35.0%
Unfriendly personnel practices 33.2%
Masami Nomura The End of Toyotism ?



Fair Day's Work: Labour Waste
"Therefore, W.P.S. (Windsor Production System) requires that the slack time at each work station be minimized by
shifting work content between stations so that the work load at each is nearly the same and all are
approximately equal in cycle time.
This will avoid the situation of the operator waiting for the machine and wasting time. It is anticipated that this
approach will better utilize labour resources and approach a "Fair Day's Work" policy application as idle labour
time is minimized.
In addition, it is proposed that wherever possible, equipment be designed so as to operate automatically which
will permit an operator to manage more machines and further reduce labour waste. In order to further maximize
labour resources, it is important that equipment layout within processes be given careful consideration so as to
reduce waste of motion and transport time."
General Motors Windsor Production System Training Manual


Setting a Union Agenda
Work Pace and Production Standards
Lean production intends to redefine a fair day's labour. In management's view there is too much slack in the
system and too much idle time in each of our jobs. Within each work cycle management wants to change how
much time we work and to remove the slack time. The goal is to get as close as possible to sixty seconds of
work in every minute. It is an unreasonable goal. There is a fine line between vision and illusion. Lean production
helps management cross the line.
There needs to be a brake on unreasonable demands and clear limits to the intensity of work.
In earlier times the CAW developed language around production standards and work standards regulating model
changeovers, the use of time and motion studies and resisting speedups. Now, with continuous improvement
and constantly changing work standards, we need modified or new language.
Workers shouldn't have to say, as they do in lean production, that they can't survive to retirement. Instead, the
workplace should be characterized by a comfortable work pace - one that is sustainable. This requires three
elements:
1. A recognition that a comfortable pace involves discretionary time and the possibility for workers to vary the
job and the pace;
2. Adequate relief staff;
3. A regulated (negotiated) process for changing job content and job times.
Training
Although there is renewed attention to workplace learning, company controlled training emphasizes programs
aimed at changing attitudes and providing skills which facilitate work reorganization (communication skills,
working in teams, continuous improvement). Little is being provided in terms of basic skills, opportunities for
academic upgrading, technical training or in the areas of critical thinking and personal development. Those are
the elements of good training.
The CAW's goal is to change the extent of training (there is not enough), the distribution of training (it is uneven
and available to a selected few) and the content of the training (it is company defined). This requires a more
active union role in workplace training issues, a role that is built around:
Training time that is guaranteed (i.e. forty hours a year) and that is available to everyone without
production pressures.
Joint control of training programs where the content is co-determined and the delivery is based on the
principles of adult education.
Job Design
In the drive to lean, jobs are being redesigned. For those who claim a 'win-win' situation, this means jobs which
are enriched and enlarged and workers who have authority and responsibility. In reality, jobs are made tighter
and more intense and workers become 'multitasked', more flexible and are assigned more indirect duties.
Developing good job design means:
Jobs which are constructed on the basis of deepening skill and expanding options rather than the
reverse.
Workplaces with a mix of jobs and a negotiated method of moving to different jobs.
Workplaces where injured workers are accommodated without additional pressure on co-workers.
More Union Input
We are not interested in becoming junior partners in production but we do want to develop an effective working
relationship with management which improves the conditions of work for our members as well as the productive
capacity of the workplace. There are areas of the workplace where we want more input. We want expanded
opportunities to discuss production issues from a union perspective. Some of these areas include:
Training committees to assess training needs and develop training programs.
Ergonomics committees devoted to improving the design of workstations and the design of jobs rather
than adapting the individual to the job function.
Technology committees that focus on the design, implementation and effects of new technology, that
argue for skill based technical change and advance a model of appropriate technology.
Environmental committees which discuss environmentally sound products and production methods.
Japanese Workers

We feel all petered out. How much harder must we work?
Employees are exhausted... (companies have been) too demanding of their employees.
The workers had to do 350 hours of overtime per year.
The industry will collapse from the inside, due to the labour shortage and low profits.
Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers Union (JAW) Japanese Automobile Industry in the Future: Toward
Co-existence with the World, Consumers & Employees, 1992


Conclusion
In every situation of workplace change the union evaluates its role. We assess what we are strong enough to
resist, accommodations we are willing to make, and strategies for putting our own issues at the forefront. There
are always questions: What kind of involvement? Where is management going? What are our goals? Can we
'unionize' company programs? Should we resist them? How do we achieve our objectives?
At times we got involved in various management programs to monitor the process. But lean production
programs cannot be monitored from the inside. They have to be either resisted or changed. Resistance can't be
passive nor can criticism be limited to exposing irrational management practices. Instead there needs to be a
clear statement of the difference between management objectives and workers' interest. Similarly, if the union is
involved, it can't be passive - that would only leave us trying to fly the plane from the rear of the cabin.
Participation must be based on advancing the interests of workers and strengthening the union as an
organization. In any process of change this requires:
A clear union agenda developed with and communicated to the membership;
The resources to support effective participation;
An educational program with the membership
An evaluation of the merits of involvement.

CAMI Workers on Teams & Team Leaders Teams

Highlights from the 1991 Convention: CAW Statement on the Reorganization of
Work
As a union, we need to look behind the surface of "partnership" and ask ourselves what it really means and what
the result will be. Workers belong and pay dues to our union because they want to improve their standard of
living through collective bargaining, and to improve their workplace conditions through strong union
representation dealing with grievances, health and safety, human rights, and equitable treatment.
This "partnership" and its promises are false. For all the talk about jointness and worker control, employers are
certainly not putting true equality between themselves and their employees on the agenda. Management will
continue to jealously guard the management's rights clause and to unilaterally decide when to modernize, how
much to invest, what to produce, with what kind of technology, and so on. The truth is management's agenda is
not about surrendering its power, but of finding more sophisticated ways to extend it.
Similarly, accepting the management agenda will not guarantee jobs. In fact, keeping workers uncertain about
their jobs, and therefore weaker, is part and parcel of the new management agenda. Our jobs will continue to
depend on interest rates and exchange rates, on government policy and international developments, on the
power of companies to export jobs in the name of profit-maximization, and on our own ability to join others
and mobilize for social change.
Nor are these programs about creating a more liveable workplace for working people. In spite of the rhetoric, the
real aim of these programs is to break down worker resistance to the changes management wants to implement.
And this includes trying to get workers to voluntarily put aside their own workplace needs and identify with the
needs that management has defined - a process that will undermine past gains in the workplace.
At the center of the management agenda is the ideology of "competitiveness". Even without the rest of the
management package, we have already lost if "competitiveness" is the agreed starting point. In subsequent
discussions or negotiations based on competitiveness, the bottom line will always revert to "what's good for the
corporation?" So it is critical that we reject competitiveness as the dominant criterion guiding our actions.
Rejecting "competitiveness" is not the same as rejecting the importance of quality and productivity. We
understand the value of quality products for other workers, consumers and ourselves. Forty years ago,
autoworkers argued for a better quality car: one that was safe, conserved fuel, and was environmentally-
sensitive. The corporations responded that this was not a money-making venture and that decisions about the
product were a management, not a union, concern. Over the years, we have had running battles with
corporations over quality: we argued for more workers and a more reasonable workpace to improve quality,
while foremen and supervisors, feeling the pressures of volume requirements, rejected this in favour of more
output. And where management has come to us with a specific quality problem, we have assisted in the search
for a solution.
We also understand that improved productivity - when it really is productivity not just speedup, and when it is
actually shared with workers - is a basic part of a growing standard of living. We have not rejected new
technology but insisted that we get advance notice, proper training, a more meaningful input into the process of
tech change and a share in the benefits of the greater output per worker. The facts are that Canadian workers
have nothing to be defensive about in terms of our current and past contributions to quality and productivity.
But competitiveness is something quite different: workers can produce high quality products, can be very
productive, and can even show restraint in their wage demands- yet their competitiveness can be declining. The
reason is that "competitiveness" is a relative concept: no mater how well we do, if others do it still cheaper, or if
the Canadian dollar is artificially high, then Canadian workers will be less competitive no matter what else we
reasonably do.
Accepting "competitiveness" puts us on a treadmill, a rat-race we can't win. It means trying to undermine fellow
workers in other Canadian facilities and workers in other developed countries. It forces us to compete with
countries whose living standards remain below where we were decades ago and it leads towards comparisons
with regimes that keep standards low by denying basic human and trade union rights. It means concessions
today and even more concessions tomorrow as other workers feel forced to join the downward spiral. Unlike
quality and productivity, the logic of competitiveness adds a dimension that threatens all our achievements.
Produced by the CAW Research and Communications Departments, 1993 205 Placer Court North York,
Willowdale Ontario M2H 3H9 (416) 497-4110 Fax: (416) 495-6552