Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?

After revolutionising manufacturing in the 1980s, the ideas of lean production are becoming increasingly significant for today’s white-collar work. Drawing on extensive empirical fieldwork, this article shows the fundamental changes in knowledge and office work as a result of new lean concepts. Two...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tobias Kaempf
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: tripleC 2018-11-01
Series:tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1048
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spelling doaj-2d28b4adafc448cbb7818d563dc247da2020-11-25T00:39:10ZengtripleCtripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X1726-670X2018-11-0116290191810.31269/triplec.v16i2.10481048Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?Tobias Kaempf0ISF MuenchenAfter revolutionising manufacturing in the 1980s, the ideas of lean production are becoming increasingly significant for today’s white-collar work. Drawing on extensive empirical fieldwork, this article shows the fundamental changes in knowledge and office work as a result of new lean concepts. Two case studies are compared: the implementation of lean in the administration of a traditional industrial company and the reorganisation of software development by combining lean with Agile methods in a leading IT company. Lean is becoming a pioneer for new forms of industrialisation of white-collar work. The spectrum extends from a ‘factory approach’ with rigid work flows in administration to new development models in knowledge-intensive areas that go well beyond Tayloristic approaches. Based on the possibilities of digitisation, lean opens up new ways for the valorisation of knowledge work in modern capitalism, best described with the Marxian notion of ‘real subsumption’ of labour under capital.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1048Agile methodsindustrialisationknowledge worklean productionnew production modelswhite-collar worklean
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Tobias Kaempf
spellingShingle Tobias Kaempf
Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Agile methods
industrialisation
knowledge work
lean production
new production models
white-collar work
lean
author_facet Tobias Kaempf
author_sort Tobias Kaempf
title Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
title_short Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
title_full Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
title_fullStr Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
title_full_unstemmed Lean and White-Collar Work: Towards New Forms of Industrialisation of Knowledge Work and Office Jobs?
title_sort lean and white-collar work: towards new forms of industrialisation of knowledge work and office jobs?
publisher tripleC
series tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
issn 1726-670X
1726-670X
publishDate 2018-11-01
description After revolutionising manufacturing in the 1980s, the ideas of lean production are becoming increasingly significant for today’s white-collar work. Drawing on extensive empirical fieldwork, this article shows the fundamental changes in knowledge and office work as a result of new lean concepts. Two case studies are compared: the implementation of lean in the administration of a traditional industrial company and the reorganisation of software development by combining lean with Agile methods in a leading IT company. Lean is becoming a pioneer for new forms of industrialisation of white-collar work. The spectrum extends from a ‘factory approach’ with rigid work flows in administration to new development models in knowledge-intensive areas that go well beyond Tayloristic approaches. Based on the possibilities of digitisation, lean opens up new ways for the valorisation of knowledge work in modern capitalism, best described with the Marxian notion of ‘real subsumption’ of labour under capital.
topic Agile methods
industrialisation
knowledge work
lean production
new production models
white-collar work
lean
url https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1048
work_keys_str_mv AT tobiaskaempf leanandwhitecollarworktowardsnewformsofindustrialisationofknowledgeworkandofficejobs
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