Halvor Holtskog

How enablers for lean product development motivate engineers

This paper discusses how intrinsic motivation is affected by lean enablers such as clear project objectives and Customer Requirements (CR), continuous improvement and cross-functional teams. It is assumed that – if you know what the customer wants, are able to collect a broad variety of ideas and define potential risks as early as possible, and finally continuously work to solve all problems along the way – you probably work according to a lean product development approach. Nevertheless, how does this picture fit into motivation theory and engineer critical psychological states? To investigate this question, a survey was undertaken among Norwegian automotive suppliers. The results show that only the variable CR are significantly related to motivation. Accomplishing CR is seen as the primary activity by product developers and believed to be in closer proximity toan engineer than the other variables.

Unlocking work standards through systematic work observation: implications for team supervision

Purpose – Companies with routine operations often pursue team‐based continuous improvement in the context of standardized work. Continuous improvement requires that work standards are periodically “unlocked”, i.e. made objects of reflection and improvement. This paper aims to theorize and empirically explore a method for unlocking standards which has received little attention in the literature: systematic work observation. It identifies which factors constitute and promote a work observation practice that supports continuous improvement.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an explorative, qualitative case study of an industrial company in which systematic work observation is practiced. Empirical material was collected from two principal sources: company documentation and teaching material; and interviews with workers, managers and work design experts from three of the companys major plants.Findings – Systematic work observation supports continuous improvement when there is genuine two‐way com...

Social aspects of Plant monitoring and visualization

Monitoring and visualization of manufacturing plants can be both an aggregation of process monitoring to plant level as well as visualization of performance indicators and material flow. This paper contains a survey on 5 Norwegian manufacturing plants and suggestions on how to utilize of these systems for organizational learning and knowledge creation. The paper contains one in-depth case study on one of the plants.

Organizational Culture: The Differentiated Perspective

This chapter scrutinizes the micro level of the industrial production processes, that is, the level of firm. It shows how global manufacturing/managerial trends, sectoral specific factors, national contexts, and firm specific features are represented into firms’ observable cultural aspects and artifacts. The analysis provides the deeper understanding of subcultures and their respective behaviors, as well as, functions in a manufacturing context.

Policy Implications of the Reindustrialization of Advanced Economies

This chapter reflects upon the body of accumulated knowledge gathered in the previous chapters by identifying the key skills and sensitivities that good management teams within modern manufacturing companies should possess. Given the complexities and variability of modern manufacturing production lines and markets, the management teams must ensure they act in a facilitative manner, that is, to be able to intelligently tap into and act upon cultural understanding to unleash the creative forces and eagerness of learning embedded in the organization. Are these insights adequately embedded in modern industrial policies?

The Financial Crisis

This chapter explores the reasons why the Norwegian industry performed well during the financial crisis and we draw the general lessons that can be learned from this. The chapter relies on the results of an extensive survey investigating how the economic crisis resulted in increased efficiency and effectiveness in Norwegian manufacturing. It paves the way for the remainder of the book by asking how such positive results can emerge out of an external shock, a crisis. This chapter also discusses how to understand the findings from the Norwegian case in a global context. Interestingly, the first part of the survey was completed before the financial crisis, and the second in its aftermath, offering a unique before-after situation analysis of business perspectives.

Culture: Internal Business Contradictions

This chapter broadens and deepens insight from the previous chapter by bringing in another theoretical perspective: the Geertzian perspective of culture. It describes how the import of broader global managerial trends affect knowledge-creation processes and the differentiated cultures they are embedded in.

Development of Suspension Parts Project

From a macro and national perspective, this chapter focuses on the specificities of a manufacturing sector, that is, the Norwegian automotive industry. The chapter introduces the reader to product development in the industry, demonstrating how the organization learns (or not) from the one product development project to the next. This descriptive approach as to how product development occurs in real settings is in stark contrast to the one presented in the firms’ formal description of quality management systems and other types of formal displays. This chapter provides therefore, a unique insight in a) the discrepancies between firms’ fragmented and not always coinciding representations of realities of real production processes and b) the challenges firms’ meet in accumulating knowledge and know-how between projects.

Balancing Organisational Design Principles: A Pragmatic Scandinavian Approach to CSR

One can argue that Scandinavian countries have much of the essence of CSR incorporated in their culture and society. We use Norway as an example for this argument, by looking at the development of work-life since the 50s. Further, we use one highly industrialised area, Raufoss, as further proof of our claim of the lack of separate popularity of CSR, as it is already covered in the context of society. However, this is not the same as saying that there are no challenges to this model. One of the most challenging topics is innovation: this should be socially responsible innovation. The Norwegian, social model can seem to promote stability, so that people and companies become risk averse.

Sustainable Manufacturing as Mutual Competence Building

In this chapter, Sustainable Manufacturing as MCB, Halvor Holtskog, Richard Ennals, and Hans Chr Garmann Johnsen argue how sustainable manufacturing can be seen as combining the traditional manufacturing management perspective with organisational development and participatory perspectives. The definition of Sustainable Business Systems is different from other uses of sustainability. The chapter tries to link arguments for business and for education. Arguably Working Life Research has an integrative role. One might ask: how can universities be seen as sustainable work systems, and how can they develop an account of empowerment?