Furthermore, there are several advantages and disadvantages associated with each of these approaches. First, appointed team leaders will enjoy the full support of management, but not necessarily that of the workforce they are to lead, while on the other hand, completely elected team leaders may well have the full support of the workers, but may not be in tune with management or may even lack leadership qualities ('The Social and Labor Impact of Globalization in the Manufacture of Transport Equipment' 2000). Between these two extremes, there are several possibilities, where one is the joint selection of team leaders by a management or trade union committee, and the other one is to obtain confirmation by the workforce once the leader has been appointed, the third is to have a slate of candidates, certified as being acceptable to management in terms of leadership and training capabilities, from which one could then be elected by the workforce ('The Social and Labor Impact of Globalization in the Manufacture of Transport Equipment' 2000).
Consequences for the Spread of Lean Production System
There are several consequences in terms of applying a lean production system in a company. It has been argued that a mass organization system in contrast to the lean production system is more complex, both vertically and horizontally, in terms of information sharing and decision-making (Chun and Zhiang 1999). This makes the lean production system less complex, for in their search to incorporate employee information and opinion into the operation and decision-making process, they seek to reduce both the vertical and horizontal complexities of an organization, thus having more participative-like management, and employee input is required and valued explicitly by upper management (Chun and Zhiang 1999). In terms of formalization, or the standardization and specification in rules and procedures within an organization, lean production systems in less formal, which gives the employees the chance for cooperative work and multiple job skills and expertise (Chun and Zhiang 1999). This would lead to the ability of the employees to develop multi-tasking skills, and the chance to learn new jobs and skills. This would in turn, increase the productivity of the company and the employees' loyalty, in providing them with new information. Moreover, the openness and team-based approach of lean producers are the most important features of their decentralization, and being decentralized, more people can make decisions in the organization (Chun and Zhiang 1999). This would enhance the ability of the employees to participate in the problem solving and decision-making process of the company, offering creative tension, in which workers may have ways to address the challenges faced by the company (Chun and Zhiang 1999). In addition, participating in the decision-making process in the company would enhance teamwork and communication. With effective communication, information can be dissipated properly to the employees, which increases the involvement of the employees to the different problems of the company. In this way, they can express their views and give out suggestions to further enhance the development of production and employee matters.
However, despite the advantages obtained by employees under lean production systems, stress is often experienced. It has been reported that the lean workplace is subjected to constant stress as teams or individual workers are forced to speed up assembly lines, reducing the number of workers, and taking away materials (Yates 2001). In addition, workers learn as many routine jobs as possible, so that management would not have problems, in the event that some team members are absent from work, and inventories are kept to a minimum, further stressing workers who can no longer rely upon stocks of spare parts to keep production up when problems occur (Yates 2001). Furthermore, this system aims at the maximum extraction of labor from human labor power, which compels workers to work with peak intensity for as many hours as possible (Yates 2001). This pressures the employees to work, which could somehow create tension in the workplace. Tension can somehow be helpful to extract and enhance the capabilities of the workers, but if it is always present, then it can disrupt the work ethics of the employees, leading to decrease in productivity and interest to work.
Conclusion
The two production systems, namely Fordist and lean production systems are significant to evaluate the productivity of business organizations. The Fordist production system is mass production, while the lean production system is assembly line manufacturing. Both of these production systems have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on their product, target market, production strategies and time frame. With the advantages seen by most companies in the implementation of the lean production system, many organizations are adopting it, and these advantages contribute to the gain in profit and increase in productivity of the company. However, the lean production system also has its setbacks and disadvantages, by subjecting the employees to continuous stress and tension in the workplace, which is not healthy for both the employees and the management. With this, it is best to further evaluate the implementation of these production systems in a company, keeping in mind the benefit of the company and employees as a whole.
