Lean and Psycho-Social Aspects of Work

Lean and psycho-social aspects of work

Per Langaa Jensen,

DTU Management Engineering,

Building 423, Technical University of Denmark (DTU),

DK 2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract

Lean has for the last decade developed as the dominating model for developing productions processes not only within industry but also in health care, administration and service industries in general. With this development a discussion on human factors aspects of lean has developed internationally. Literature studies documents that it is not possible to establish a clear relation between lean and the psychosocial aspects of work. The studies also indicate that the context and the implementations process play a dominating role in how lean is experienced. This has been the basis for establishing an intervention study comprising 9 Danish enterprises involved in implementing lean. Based on tentative results from cases from the present studies the findings from the literature study can be elaborated. It reveals some of the dynamics an ergonomist have to take into consideration in influencing the lean program. This opens for a discussion of the potential to establish a primary prevention towards psycho-social aspects of work.

Keywords: socio-technical design, lean, quality of working life

Topic: Human resource management and wellbeing.

Introduction

Lean has for the last decade in Denmark developed as the dominating model for developing productions processes. It has spread from industry to health care, administration and service industries in general. This seems not only as a specific Danish but as a general development characterizing many industrial countries.

With this development a discussion on human factors aspects of lean has developed internationally. It was actually integrated in the first book on lean. Thus Womack, Jones, & Roos (1990) stated that the application of trimmed production (an early term for lean) would involve more challenging jobs with a delegation of responsibility to workers compared to traditional industrial jobs. It might be conceived as more demanding leading to anxiety for doing mistakes, but in general it was conceived as an empowerment of workers. Harrison (1994) gave in his book a critical comment to this optimistic picture. Under the heading of ‘lean and mean’ he argued that the implementation of lean in combination with a globalization of production would lead to a division of workers into an A-team being high qualified, having high wages and good relative secure jobs and a B-team being low qualified, having a low pay and high job insecurity. Secondly, job-security would diminish because it will become more difficult to move from one job to another within the enterprise, permanent employment will be replaced by precarious employment and a competition on jobs between different regions.

With the dissemination of lean to many sectors of society this more academic discussion dichotomizing the debate has spread not only to the public debate in the media but also in the debate in workplaces and for employed in labour marked organisations. Therefore a grant we given to an action oriented study to investigate the possibilities to include psycho-social aspects of work in lean initiatives[1].

Three definitions of lean

A major problem for such a study is that the concept of lean is not well defined. Three major definitions can be identified: The most comprehensive understanding defines lean as a basic approach to or philosophy for developing production i.e. lean is a continuous process of change based on a vision to attain an organization without waste. This definition focuses on the general aim of efforts not on the specific activities. The vision has two characteristics: all involved in the production process has in focus the need of their customers and their willingness to pay, and all involved are aware of their responsibilities in relation to the total production system. All activities not related to the needs of customers have over time to be eliminated. This is combined with an empowerment of the employees. Secondly, the importance on establishing lean-activities as a continuous process is emphasised opposed to a project organization delimited in time. From a human factor perspective, activities having the purpose of empowering the employees in relation to the production of value to society should be beneficial.

A more narrow definition defines lean as a procedure comprising a set of activities. The phases shown in figure 1 have to be accomplished. To support the identification of waste 7-8 generic types of waste is identified. They are listed in figure 2.

Again, seen from a human factor perspective elimination of the many open evidences of bad management (according to figure 2) and a consideration of the present competencies possessed by the employees should be beneficial

Thirdly, lean can be defined as a set of tools which might be used in analysing and developing the production process (Bicheno, 2004). They have a mixture of Japanese and English names combined with abbreviations as 5S, standardised work, flow layout, Hoshin Kanri, Kamishibai, Kaizen, Kanban, SMED, PDCA, Gemba and Poka Yoke. Despite the strange names most of these tools are well known in industry, and have been applied for many years. Within lean they are gathered into a combined approach.

Seen from a human factor perspective many of the tools are applicable also by operators. It is often reported as a success, as they develop the understanding of a group of workers of the activities in which they are involved. A tool based approach to lean opens for flexibility adjusting to local conditions. But it does not automatically fulfil the demands linked to the first, broader definition.

To sum up these definitions of lean two aspects make it remarkable to other approaches to improve production: firstly, the focus is on customer value and not mainly on cost cutting and secondly, workers participation in analysing and developing activities is emphasised. But it is also a concept open for more interpretations.

No simple correlation between lean and psycho-social aspects of work

As a lean-approach implies changes in normal routines and procedures, it will have an effect on the quality of work. Therefore, the first step in the study on lean and the psycho-social aspects of work has been to conduct a literature review to examine the present knowledge.

A first attempt to accumulate the results from more systematic studies than the two previously presented was conduced by Landsbergis et al. (Landsbergis, Cahill, & Schnall, 1999). They analysed 38 studies, coming to the results that lean creates intensified work pace and demands within the auto industry production. Increases in decision authority and skill levels are modest or temporary, and decision latitude remains low. This leads to increase job strain and an increase in musculoskeletal disorders. For other types of industries both negative and positive correlations were found and for sectors outside industry only limited information were found.

After this study more have been conducted to analyse the impact of lean on the quality of work (Jackson & Mullarkey (2000), Anderson-Connolly et al (2002), Parker (2003), Brenner et al. (2004), Schouten & Benders (2004), Seppälä & Klemola (2004)). They show no simple causal relation between the implementation of lean and the deterioration of psycho-social aspects of work. The latest study of the effects of lean gives a more comprehensive picture especially focusing on stress (Conti et al., 2006). 1.391 production workers at 21 UK companies focusing on assembly were included. The enterprises were visited to estimate their ‘level of lean’, and the workers replied to a questionnaire. The analysis was conducted in relation to a series of hypothesis on the relation between lean and stress formulated beforehand by the research team. They found a diversified picture of the relation between lean and stress see figure 3.

The implementation of lean might: / Lean might uncover pre-existing problems:
Increase stress / Reduce stress

• Increased speed of work
• Systematically removing resources
• Increase working hours
• Reduce cycle time
• Fill in on absent workers
• Feeling being blamed for defects

/

• Controlling speed of work
• Controlling workflow
• Involved in change processes
• Influencing the strategy for change
• Options for job rotation
• Team based organisation
• Support from management
• Buffer capacity between different processes.

/

• Badly designed workstations
• Badly fitting of components
• Interruption of production
• Inadequate education and training
• Lack of tools and equipment

Figure 3 The diversified results of lean on stress (Conti et al., 2006)

Besides no empirical proof for a simple correlation between lean and the development in the quality of work more issues to be addressed in working with lean can be identified. The studies reveal that there are difficulties in making the concept of lean operational in empirical studies. It is of course difficult to work empirically with the definition of lean as a philosophy. A definition based on lean as a set of activities might be made operational, but most studies uses ‘tools used’ as the major basis of making lean operational. As many tools might be applied this opens for a multitude of contributing factors to the effects found.

Thirdly, the demand – control model developed by Karasek & Theorell (1995) govern the understanding of how to conceptualize the psycho-social aspects of work. A more elaborated conceptual frame might open for a more comprehensive understanding. Kristensen (1999) formulates such a frame, shown in figure 4. This has to be followed by a combination of observed and experienced aspects of the development of work. This is a resource demanding task restricting the number of jobs to be studied. But it opens for a more comprehensive, detailed understanding of the mechanisms at stake between reorganisation of production and personal experiences of job qualities.

Fourthly, this might open for an analysis which the present studies do not address. Effects of change in procedures and routines in jobs might have two interdependent causes: one belonging to the way change management has been handled and the other to the impact of lean principles on job design.

On our present study

This has been the point of departure of our present study. Our aim is to develop an approach to lean to optimize human factor aspects in combination with traditional economic aspects of enterprise decision making. This will be carried out in cooperation with 9 enterprises (3 from industry, 3 from the health sector and 3 from public administration). Emphasis is not on ‘how to do’ but more on ‘how to think’ and ‘how to act’ in affecting the dominating approaches to lean.

Tentative results from the first contacts with enterprises

Based on a combination of one of the case studies and the results of a master thesisfollowing a set of lean activities at a Danish hospital the findings from the literature study can be elaborated.

Two cases

The hospital has been dedicated to implementing lean in the different departments for more years. They typically could report good results on productivity linked to specific initiatives, but they also experienced difficulties in maintain the results over time. To examine this, a student worked as part of a dedicated lean team as part of his master thesis activities. For a period of 6 month he participated in all meeting in the steering committee and in the lean-taskforce working with lean in a department of the hospital. He describes how the arguments and models for introducing a lean approach were countered both in arguments and in actions. Especially the doctors in chief positions played a major role at the meetings in the steering committee to confuse the discussion on how to implement a lean approach. In his analysis the student argue, that these doctors were following other interests related to the production in the different departments they were managing. Representatives from the other professional groups we passive at the meetings and the lean-taskforce were not able to prevail with their lean agenda. The work of the task force – where the doctors were not involved – were characterised by limited actions and actions mostly addressed to the nurses. They implemented whiteboard supported planning tools for open local decision making meetings on daily production. But as the whole team (helpers, nurses and doctors) did not attend the general purpose with these tools could not be fulfilled.

In the other case - an engineering work part of a large multinational enterprise – lean had also been on the agenda for more years. It has successfully been introduced in one department, but it has also been given problems for first line managers and more operators. Therefore they volunteered in participating in our study. We (two senior researchers) participated in the first discussions on how to proceed with the lean activities. Present were the factory manager, the shop steward, the local lean expert and the HR-manager. The local lean expert presented an approach, which can be characterized as a top-down, strongly action oriented approach focusing on the specific analysis to be conducted and the reorganisations to be made and thereby the results to be expected. The reactions came primarily from the researcher arguing for a more process oriented approach emphasising the dissemination of the general intentions, the main set of steps to be taken and the time plan for the initiative. This opened a vivid discussion lasting for two to three meetings. But then a demand from head quarter to immediately increase the production quality set a temporary stop to all initiatives related to developing the lean activities.

Analysis

More can be learned from these two cases. Both cases illustrate the difficulties in changing present practice. Especially the industry case show how daily operations and the immediate problem solving and the short term development of these operations have priority over initiatives with a more long term perspective.

Secondly, the two cases demonstrate that power games are closely linked to lean activities. Especially the hospital case demonstrates the powerful position of doctors. A comparative analysis of the two cases reveals the structural basis for the power position of different groups. The two organisations represent different type of organisations and thereby reveal differences in power games between the actors involved. Mintzberg (1983) has developed a simple conceptual model for analysing organisations. Mintzberg then distinguishes between different forms of organizations characterised by different modes of coordination.

The machine bureaucracy is characterised by coordination through standards and rules which might be embedded in the technical system. The techno-structure is making these rules and standards and are therefore a strong group of actors in this type of organisation. The engineering works falls into this category. The lean expert (a part of the local techno-structure) has a major role in defining the approach. The group of senior researchers is though in a position to oppose his definition and open for a debate of how to define the approach.

The hospital resembles a professional bureaucracy. Here the primary coordinating mechanism is standardisation of skills, and these operators (especially doctors and nurses) are groups with strong power positions. In the case the group of doctors succeeds in opposing the proposal from the techno-structure (the lean team), and this team do not have strategies to meet their objections.

Action oriented potentials from ergonomists

The tentative analysis opens for a strategy for ergonomist to establish a primary prevention towards psycho-social aspects of work. Firstly, knowing that initiative with a longer time perspectives always have difficulties in relation to problem handling in daily operations, opens for a differentiated strategy for ergonomists. Besides supporting problem solving in relation to daily operations they shall be aware of potential initiatives with a longer time perspective. They might attempt to become part of the coalition promoting these initiatives, and try to ensure that their concern is ‘part of the package’.

Secondly, the organizational analysis opens for tactic consideration beyond ‘getting the support of top management’. In an organization resembling a machine bureaucracy alliance with the techno-structure is of importance while in an organization dominated by traits of a professional bureaucracy the highly skilled operators are central in a coalition. This approach demands that the ergonomist reframes and renames his or hers concern, so it matches the concerns of the coalition partners(Jensen, 2002).

If ergonomists aims at primary prevention they have to develop such political competencies. Many have trough their practice. This paper demonstrates that the daily experiences can be formalized and conceptualized using organization theory and thereby opening for more elaborate reflections.

References

Anderson-Connolly, R., Grunberg, L., Greenberg, E. S., & Moore, S. (2002). "Is lean mean? workplace transformation and employee well-being", Work Employment and Society, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 389-413

Bicheno, J. (2004). New Lean Toolbox - Towards Fast, Flexible Flow, 3.edt. Picsie Books

Brenner, M. & Fairris, D. (2004). "Flexible" Work Practices and Occupational Safety and Health: Exploring the Relationship between Cumulative Trauma Disorders and Workplace Transformation", Industrial Relations, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 242-266

Conti, R., Angelis, J., Cooper, C., Faragher, B., & Gill, C. (2006). "The effects of lean production on worker job stress", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 26, no. 9, pp. 1013-1038.

Harrison, B. (1994). Lean and Mean. The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility The Guilford Press, New York.

Jackson, P. R. & Mullarkey, S. (2000). "Lean Production Teams and Health in Garment Manufactureq", Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 231-245

Jensen, P.L.(2002): Human Factors And Ergonomics In The Planning Of Production, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 29, pp. 121-131

Karasek, R. og Theorell, T (1995). Healthy Work, Stress, productivity and the reconstruction of working Life, Basic Books, New York

Kristensen, T.S. (1999) Challenges for Research and Prevention in Relation to Work and Cardiovascular Diseases, Scand. Journ. Of Work Environment and Health, vol 25, no. 6, pp. 550-557