Lean and psychosocial work environment in manufacturing

Lean is currently the rationalization method of choice in the Danish manufacturing industry. This paper reports finding from three lean implementation cases. All cases are manufacturing companies focusing on upmarket products produced in small series. Prior to lean production was organized as self organized teams.

It is therefore hypothesized that lean would result in a worsening of the psychosocial environment. This was, however, not true and the paper enters into a discussion of possible reasons for this puzzling finding.