Does Lean Manufacturing Lead to Poor Ergonomics?
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between lean production practices and work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) risk exposure. Since the late 1980s, American manufacturing firms, particularly in the automotive sector, have begun to widely adopt the Japanese Management System (e.g. Toyotas Lean Production System) because of its superior quality and productivity measured against the traditional manufacturing systems of American and European firms. The proliferation of implementation of the lean production system within American firms gave rise to the debate over the extent to which this management system has adverse physical and psychological health effects on its labor force. A basic regression model of the relationship between physical WMSD risk exposure and lean production was developed and the results show a significant relationship. This model is limited in that the proxy for lean, value-added work content, does not capture the complexities of the
