Just Another Car Factory?: Lean Production and Its Discontents (ILR Press books) [Hardcover]

James Rinehart (Author), Christopher Huxley (Author), David Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0801433738 | ISBN-13: 978-0801433733

This study of CAMI Automotive, a unionized joint venture between General Motors and Suzuki, is the most comprehensive ever undertaken of a lean production plant. James Rinehart, Christopher Huxley, and David Robertson address a topic that has inspired fierce debate in industrial relations, sociology, labor studies, and human resource management. Heralded as a model of lean production when it opened in 1989, CAMI promised workers something different from traditional plants-a humane environment, empowerment, and cooperative labor-management relations. However, the enthusiasm workers felt during the orientation and early phases of production steadily declined, as did their involvement in participatory activities. Workers came to describe CAMI as "just another car factory." Union challenges and shopfloor resistance to key elements of the lean system grew, capped by a five-week strike in 1992. The authors attribute workers' disillusionment to lean production itself rather than to North American managers' inadequate implementation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Just Another Car Factory is, without a doubt, one of the most important publications to appear in the literature on Japanese work organization. It is a study of working conditions at CAMI, a joint GM/Suzuki venture located in Ingersoll, Canada, and organized according to Suzuki's version of Japanese or 'lean' production. . . . The book unequivocally demonstrates that work, working conditions, and work life in this plant do not correspond, in any way, to the idealized picture painted by advocates of the Japanese system."-Choice

"This excellent work presents not only high-quality research linked to an overall research question, but also surprisingly rich data. Findings are displayed comprehensively, concisely, and with either avoidance or skillful explication of typical 'lean production' jargon."-Industrial and Labor Relations Review

"For purposes of teaching comparative industrial relations of teams in organization theory, this is a useful primer."-New Technology, Work, and Employment

"Just Another Car Factory is a welcome and useful addition to the growing body of research on Japanese automotive factories in North America. . . . It provides a comprehensive and highly readable account of factory life based upon a wealth of empirical information culled from shop-floor observation, personal interviews with managers, union officials, and factory workers, and survey research on the adaptation and commitment of shop-floor workers."-American Journal of Sociology

"The systematic and longitudinal surveying of employee attitudes . . . is a welcome feature of this book."-Industrial Relations Journal

"This text provides a solid introduction to lean production as practiced in manufacturing today, and would be an excellent supplement to upper-division undergraduate as well as graduate courses focused on the labor process, labor-management relations, and/or studies of the manufacturing industries."-Contemporary Sociology

Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: ILR Press (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801433738
• ISBN-13: 978-0801433733
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,439,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Union Entitlement vs Earning a Living, November 25, 1999

By 

Micheal Gardner - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Another Car Factory?: Lean Production and Its Discontents (Ilr Press Books) (Paperback)

Prejudiced and unobjective account of the CAMI joint venture in Ontario. The authors, (two sociology professors and a union bureaucrat) are guilty of sloppy research and pro-union bias. Their much emphasized "unlimited access to the shop floor" was apparently wasted. This book is a golden example of a wasted opportunity. Still, it serves as an example of why transplants usually stay non-union.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear impact study of newer production management technics, December 1, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Another Car Factory?: Lean Production and Its Discontents (ILR Press books) (Hardcover)

Excellent book, very informative and readable consideration of CAMI Automotive and the implementation of "Japanese" style management. Clearly considers the worker responses over several years while describing the basics of the management approaches used. This is a a very solid and informative work.