Lean Transformation of Industrial Work : Understanding What Supports Socially Sustainable Working Conditions During Lean Manufacturing

Abstract: The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of to what extent lean manufacturing transforms industrial work, including psychosocial and physical working conditions, and, to understand how socially sustainable working conditions can be supported in a lean organization.Four studies with different methodological approaches are included. The first study is a literature overview of the associations between lean and risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. The second study documented physical workload and pain among operators, through direct measurements and painratings, in a process industry with extensive usage of lean practices. In addition, two 3-year case studies were carried out in a medium-sized, Swedish manufacturing family company. The studies focused on the influence of lean on work characteristics, psychosocial working conditions, and what leadership practices contributed to supporting the socially sustainable working conditions respectively.The literature overview on lean and physical workload showed that the literature in the area was limited, of varying quality, and that none of the included studies had directly measured the physical workload. Further, it suggested that lean tended to have better outcomes for employees in the Nordic countries and in those cases where the lean initiative was combined with an ergonomic or work environment intervention. The measurements of physical workload in the process industry showed that the exposures were low across the study period. Ratings of neck and upper extremity pain were relatively high across the years, but did not increase significantly.The results from the manufacturing company showed that employees could sustain important work resources including favorable psychosocial working conditions: Good social support, low stress levels, and a good self-rated health were sustained while role conflicts decreased, and justice and respect increased significantly. There was a trend toward gradually increased work content through job enlargment with increased elements of more qualified tasks, and more employees were cross-trained. The work standardization, however, meant that some work processes were simplified and that employees’ influence over the daily work seemed to have decreased, while there were still opportunities for them to influence what would be included in the work assignment, and employee influence through improvement practices increased. Both case studies indicated that the participatory leadership approach in combination with a value-creating leadership that focus on health and employee development, contributed to making the lean initiative socially sustainable. In conclusion, lean can affect work characteristics and employees’ working conditions in different ways depending on how, and in what type of work, it is implemented. Previous studies on lean in industry have mostly shown that lean tends to increase workload and reduce control over daily work. This thesis, however, provides examples showing that it is possible to have low levels of physical exposures in a lean process industry and that it is possible to sustain important psychosocial work resources.The work practices seemed to be shaped in an interplay between organizational context, type of job, managerial practices, lean practices employed, and employees’ involvement. Knowledge abouthow work is shaped is important for those who want to proactively contribute to a work design that supports the development of resourceful jobs. Findings in this thesis point to the need to actively monitor and care how lean affects working conditions in order to support resourceful jobs.This thesis shows that it is possible to make lean initiatives in manufacturing companies more socially sustainable. Overall, findings from this thesis indicate that important and interdependent components that can contribute to socially sustainable lean initiatives involve having a conscious focus on work environment management and health, in combination with a value-creating leadership that actively support important work resources and involves employees in a conscious manner.