The period we are going through is the scene of social, economic and political phenomena that we certainly feel profound, probably destined to decisively mark the near future in the context of an increasingly growing globalization of competition.
Even industrial activities, in their organisational, technological and relational components, are fully affected by the changes taking place and forced to review their logics and paradigms, which were structured on the scientific Tayloristic division of labor between those who dispose and those who execute.
A silent industrial revolution is underway in the factories which is deliberately not perceived by a large part of that academic, political, trade union and television opinion world which, steeped in old ideology, continues to see in the factory the place for the exploitation of workers, forced to work at a frenetic pace, exposed to the continuous risk of accidents, unable to satisfy the primary physiological needs, continually harassed by the bosses with disputes and disciplinary measures.
In the old Taylor factory there was a clear separation between the simple and repetitive activities, entrusted to the workers, and the other complex activities, the responsibility of the hierarchical line, while in the "new" factory the traditional hierarchical structures and organizational complexity were dismantled, unproductive and harmful definition, replacing them with an organization that has distributed decision-making power horizontally to all collaborators (workers, technicians, managers) who are the most suitable to exercise them at the various levels.
If for decades the production system was declined by the technical system, reducing the contribution of worker labor to a mere indistinct factor of production, in the "new" factory instead the figure of the worker and his "knowledge" acquires centrality: in other parole it is no longer the man who has to adapt to the technical work station, but it is the workplace that must be as suitable as possible to the psycho-physical characteristics of the worker.
Today, when you look at a worker's workplace, you see respect for the environment, the safety of people and things, a well-organized working method, the use of advanced technology machinery that reduces the fatigue of the worker, as well as the involvement of operating personnel.
With World Class Manufacturing (WCM), the new factory philosophy sees for each workplace the synchrony between man and technological processes. Therefore, today the need for real worker involvement, seen not only as a simple consent to innovative interventions, but as awareness of all the objectives relating to one's own work area, is fundamental for the company.
From an organizational point of view, these objectives are to be pursued with a structured approach such as safety and quality, compliance with operational and production sequences, as well as the links these have with the more general measurable and monitored objectives of the production process itself.
This type of involvement is a cultural change that broadens the basis for participation in the processes to define jobs to workers, effectively shifting the organizational culture towards cooperation, encouraging learning and allowing continuous improvement.
With the participation of workers, at all levels, from the design phases of the workplaces up to the process verifications, a faster, less error-prone and more stable implementation of the method is obtained as a result, as well as an overall increase in productivity.
The workplace has been transformed, it is no longer that Polyphemous cave that the collective imagination perceives outside the factory and which it still considers to be a horrible place, with its darkness, where only cunning - which is a mixture of intelligence and cunning, combined with shrewdness – allows workers to survive.
THEEnvironment of work as a whole has taken on a healthy smell of dignity: new canteens, new relaxation areas, new toilets are the corollary to workplaces redesigned from an ergonomic point of view to eliminate the conditions of potential accidents and injuries and to improve the overall work environment.
La safety of people and systems it goes through the identification and assessment of risks, the systematic analysis of the accidents that have occurred, technical improvements on the machines and in the workplace, education, training and control, as well as periodic internal audits on the safety of the plants.
The work activity is carried out respecting a well-organized working method in a workplace where, in addition to restoring and maintaining the basic conditions, it is also important to assign the worker a daily workload commensurate with the ergonomic conditions of the individual workplace. Daily fatigue is mitigated not only by scheduled work breaks, but also through the use of advanced technology machinery that reduce or facilitate the worker's effort in carrying out his duties.
The work team in the workshop is made up, at the worker level, of a limited number of employees and a team leader, who is also a worker. The task of the team leader, in a nutshell, is to train, collect the improvement proposals put forward by the team members, participate in the work groups created ad hoc to attack/resolve critical operational issues related to the specificities of the workplaces. The team actually cooperates with the corporate structure by increasing the level of environmental improvement and reducing the rate of conflict in the factory on the application of working times and on the determination of daily workloads.
In some cases, the involvement and contribution of the workers also leads to the technical characterization of the boundaries of the workplace with, for example, the allocation of materials in specific containers and near the workstations, the insertion of equipment that facilitates the movement of heavy parts or the adaptation of the altimetric profiles of the systems to the ergonomic characteristics of the worker.
In short, the Worker is no longer that "loser" figure of the nineteenth century forges, his working dignity, and not only that, is manifested daily by the level of participation, by the capacity for personal adaptability, by continuous training. All factors that give rise to the combination and integration of different knowledge that are the basis of continuous improvement to create the "factory of the new century".
