AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRYINTRODUCTION

March, 2010, BeijingCathy Walker

Former Director, Health and Safety DepartmentCanadian Auto Workers Union

EARLY MOTOR VEHICLES NORTH AMERICA EVOLVED FROM BICYCLE, HENRY FORD’S QUADRICYCLE,

1896

WHOLE VEHICLES MADE BY ONE OR A SMALL GROUP OF HIGHLY SKILLED MECHANICS,

1901 HENRY FORD

MASS PRODUCTION LED TO PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY

FORD ASSEMBLY LINE 1913

INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS RATHER THAN HAVING TO MAKE NEW PARTS FOR EACH VEHICLE

Model A, 1903, skilled fitter took 8.5 hours to build a major part of a car

Model T, 1908, completely redesigned assembly line so that each job took 2.5 minutes

1913 introduced moving assembly line so workers didn’t have to walk between stations, reducing each job to under 2 minutes

Cars were painted by hand

FORDISM, MASS PRODUCTION MEAN THAT JOBS ARE DIVIDED INTO SMALL PARTS SO HUNDREDS OF UNSKILLED WORKERS, TOGETHER, BUILD

HUNDREDS OF VEHICLES

OF COURSE THERE ARE STILL SKILLED WORKERS TO MAINTAIN THE PRODUCTION MACHINES, BUT THE PRODUCTION ITSELF IS DONE BY

UNSKILLED WORKERS

WORKERS ARE ALIENATED FROM THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, KARL MARX

Capitalist owns the factory And the workers are simply factors of

production

FORDISM

A term coined by Italian Communist, Antonio Gramsci to describe a form of production characterized by an assembly line (conveyor belt factory system) and standardized outputs linked with the stimulation of demand brought about by low prices, advertising, and credit.

FORD STANDARDIZED PRODUCTION AND CONSUMER CHOICE

You can have any colour as long as it’s black

Henry Ford, Model T Ford, 1921

MANY MYTHS AND HALF TRUTHS ABOUT FORD

$5 a day, high wages Workers should be able to own the

vehicles they produce But, the reality is that Ford did much to

keep unions out of his factories

FORD USED HIS OWN PRIVATE POLICE FORCE AND COMPANY GOONS

The company threatened firing and did fire people for ‘talking union’

Workplaces were full of favouritism and bribery, eg. Workers needed to give the supervisors a bottle of alcohol for better jobs

Company spied on workers’ personal lives

Shortage of labour during World War II meant workers had more power

WORKERS FOUGHT TO GET THE UNIONFORD ROUGE WORKERS IN DETROIT, USA 1941

5 WEEK STRIKE IN WINDSOR, CANADA IN 1945THOUSANDS OF PICKETS BLOCKADED PLANTS

5 WEEK STRIKE IN WINDSOR, CANADA IN 1945THOUSANDS OF PICKETS FOUGHT POLICE

5 WEEK STRIKE IN WINDSOR, CANADA IN 1945THOUSANDS OF CARS BLOCKADED PLANTS

5 WEEK STRIKE IN WINDSOR, CANADA IN 1945THOUSANDS OF CARS BLOCKADED PLANTS

FINALLY, UNION IS RECOGNIZED AND COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT ACHIEVED

TAYLORISMFREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR, AMERICAN, 1856-1915

TAYLOR: TASK OF FACTORY MANAGEMENT

determine the best way for the worker to do the job,

provide the proper tools and training provide incentives for good

performance

TAYLOR BROKE DOWN EACH JOB

into its individual motions analyzed these to determine which

were essential, and timed the workers with a stopwatch

scientific management 1910

TAYLOR eliminated unnecessary motion thus workers followed a machine like

routine, becoming far more productive

JOBS BECAME SIMPLE, REPETITIVEEASY TO LEARN AND INCREDIBLY BORING

LENIN THOUGHT TAYLORISM MADE SENSE

he, too, sought industrial efficiency

but did not understand the shortcomings of a system that de-skilled labour

removing the thinking part of labour made jobs very boring

IN MASS PRODUCTION,WORKERS BECAME COGS IN MACHINES

TODAY, TIME AND MOTION STUDIES OF WORKERS’ JOBS MEASURE TINY FRACTIONS OF A SECOND

The effect is that workers no longer can work ahead on an assembly line to get small breaks

They have no time to rest within their jobs but must follow the steps laid out by management precisely or they cannot keep up

LEAN PRODUCTION, TERM BEGAN IN 1988

John Krafcik, quality engineer in the Toyota-GM NUMMI joint venture in California

Identify and steadily eliminate waste Continuous improvement

TOYOTISM: TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Focus on improving flow of production Production levelling Eg. Kanban, pull system, parts are

ready and brought to the assembly line when production requires it, just-in-time (JIT) production

JIT is basically a system of inventory control and shifts responsibility for stocking inventory to parts suppliers

TOYOTA

ANDON LIGHTWARNS OF PRODUCTION PROBLEMS,

BUT WHAT ABOUT WORKER PROBLEMS?

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WORKING IN TEAMS

Advantages: Get to work with other workers Variation in jobs if there are, eg. 12 jobs shared

among 12 workers Can help to reduce repetitive strain injuries

Disadvantages: Jobs are still boring If a worker is absent, other workers may be forced

to do his job too If a worker is injured on a particular job and is

unable to do it for a time, the other workers in the team are forced to do it, increasing their discomfort and risk of injury

CURRENT ISSUES FOR WORKERS IN CANADA:JOB LOSS

Contracting out, ie jobs go elsewhere to other plants in Canada or to other countries

Free trade agreements and de-regulation have hurt workers, allowing companies to go where they want, when they want

CRISIS OF OVERPRODUCTION:ENDEMIC TO CAPITALISM AND A MARKET ECONOMY, EXACTLY AS MARX DESCRIBED

Late 2008, GM and Chrysler faced bankruptcy in US and were bailed out by US and Canadian governments

WORKERS RESIST, LED BY THE UNIONOCCUPATION OF GM FACTORY, 1996

ISSUE, CONTRACTING OUT, 5 WEEK STRIKE

JUNE 2008, COMPANY LIES ABOUT CLOSURE DURING BARGAINING, WORKERS AND UNION OCCUPY GM CANADIAN HEADQUARTERS

ALTERNATIVES TO ASSEMBLY LINE?LABOUR SHORTAGE IN SWEDEN 1974STRONG UNION DEMANDS: WORKERS

ALLOWED TO TAKE BREAKS WHEN WANTEDFINALLY, ASSEMBLY LINE ELIMINATED

JOBS BECAME SKILLED AGAIN REQUIRING YEARS OF TRAINING;

BUT, WHEN LABOUR SHORTAGE OVER, SO WAS THE VOLVO EXPERIMENT, PLANT FINALLY CLOSED

LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY

When news stories mention “productivity,” they almost always mean labour productivity, which measures the output that an hour of labour produces. Often expressed as “output per hour” or “output per worker-hour”.

PRODUCTIVITY AT AUTO ASSEMBLY PLANT A physical measure — the total number

of cars produced in a given period of time (a week, a month, a year) divided by the number of worker-hours needed to produce them, or

A monetary measure — the total dollar value of cars produced in a given period of time divided by the total number of worker-hours needed to produce them.

NORTH AMERICA

MEXICO AUTO ASSEMBLY AUTOMATES;PRODUCTIVITY CATCHES UP

IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY IN AUTO ASSEMBLY

If an auto assembly company can reduce the number of its direct employees by sub-contracting out or in (using dispatch workers), its reported productivity goes up

And since it is seen as a productive company, the price of its shares goes up

Today, a plant producing 250,000 or more cars per year is considered efficient and productive