The end of new production concepts? Rationalization and labour policy in the German auto industry

In the German auto industry, group-based new production concepts started to become a strategic factor in the reorganization of work in the mid-1980s. This new strategy relied on an ongoing competition between the companies in the labour market and increasing competition in the product market. Since the crisis of 1992/3 the economic situation has changed dramatically. High unemployment combined with increasing competition in the global product market had led to a new change in work policy, which is criticized by many researchers and works councils as a roll-back to Taylorism. Indeed, most of the companies reinvent the classical assembly line with standardized, short work cycles. But in contradiction to the Tayloristic work organization, the assembly workers are enabled to participate in the process of reorganization of work by doing their own time and motion studies. An important element of new production concepts, namely the participation of workers, is even intensified. Nevertheless, the German car manufacturers are step by step adopting the Toyota production system, and therefore withdraw from new production concepts in order to develop their own version of lean production.