Shopfloor Apprentices under a Lean Labour Process: Insights from a British Car Plant
研究精益生产如何改变英国汽车工厂车间学徒的学习体验，发现精益流程削弱了学徒与导师的互动，不利于融入实践社区，并理论化低效和浪费对在职学习的潜在价值。
This article considers how lean production changes the shopfloor learning experience of apprentices. Insights from labour process and communities of practice literature are used to interrogate the study. Evidence derives from apprentices’ experiences in a British car assembly plant across several decades. The study compares pre-lean apprentices’ experiences with those who learn under lean, considering how lean might reshape apprentices’ shopfloor interactions with the plant community of practice. It finds that lean appears unfavourable to apprentices’ integration into the community of practice by debilitating learning opportunities with mentors. The article concludes by theorising how inefficiency and waste may aid on-the-job learning for workplace apprentices.