Reference no: EM132197846
The Human Cost of Improving Productivity
Efficient operations management is critical in order to create a high-performing organization. Companies continually try many methods to improve efficiency, raise quality, and increase consumer satisfaction. But what is the effect on the worker? Can companies go too far in their search for efficiency? Are there ethical boundaries involved in operations management?
In this exercise, you will read a short case concerning the human cost of improved productivity and consider the ethics involved. This process should encourage you to think not only of the increased profits to be gained through constant improvements in efficiency, but also about management's responsibility to one of its core stakeholder groups, its employees. Take a moment to review what you learned about ethics throughout the text before completing this activity.
Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.
Hisashi Tomiki is the leader of a four-man self-managed team in a Toyota production plant, 200 miles south of Tokyo, Japan. Tomiki and his team work at a grueling pace to build cowls (steel chambers onto which windshields and steering columns are attached). Consider this description of Tomiki at work:
In two minutes, Tomiki fits 24 metal pieces into designated slots on three welding machines, runs two large metal sheets through each of the machines that weld on the parts, and fuses the two sheets together with two spot welds. There is little room for error. Once or twice an hour a mistake is made or a machine sticks, causing the next machine in line to stop. A yellow light flashes. Tomiki runs over. The squad must fix the part and work faster to catch up. A red button halts the production line if a problem is severe, but there is an unspoken rule against pushing it. Only once this day does Tomiki call in a special maintenance worker.
The experience of workers like Tomiki has become increasingly common. Workers are heard to complain that constant attempts to increase quality and reduce costs really mean continuous speedup and added job stress from the increased pressure on employees to perform. Although some pressure is good, past a certain point it can seriously harm employees. Moreover, consider the following comment by Jerry Miller, a former employee of US West, whose team of billing clerks reengineered themselves out of a job.
"When we first formed our teams, the company came in talking teams and empowerment and promised that we wouldn't lose any jobs. It turns out all this was a big cover. The company had us all set up for reengineering. We showed them how to streamline the work, and now 9,000 people are gone. It was cut-your-own-throat. It makes you feel used."
Because employees are stressed by increasing demands for increased efficiency, managers should
increase their pay.
decrease their hours worked.
seek to balance their concerns in a just manner.
hire workers who are more resistant to stress.
never attempt reengineering.