... with the co‐operation of company officials. The second case represents group work in a lean facility. It is a distribution centre for a Japanese car manufacturer in Europe. In this facility spare parts are collected and cars are prepared for despatch to dealers. This case was studied in 1994. The words “lean...

... to a case study of group working in a clothing manufacturing plant. Explains how the net effects of the move from progressive assembly in batches towards a form of assembly organization incorporating somewhat longer task cycles, tighter coupling, and a more horizontal form of co‐operation have been...

... final assembly plant. Illustrates this discussion by empirical data from the shopfloor of the Volvo Uddevalla plant. Focuses mainly on the evolution of the intra‐group work pattern from the start in the training workshop to the final intra‐group work pattern and the assembly performance achieved before...

... to the companies, this is the very moment to start using autonomous work groups. On the one hand these changes enable the companies to introduce autonomous work groups,while on the other these changes force companies to do so. © MCB UP Limited 1992 Autonomous work groups Group working Innovation...