The Automaker that Changed the World. High Automation, Total Quality Management and Digitalization at FIAT Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). A Comment on “Working conditions within Italian FCA Group plants” by Matteo Gaddi

Abstract

What we observe today are not the unintended social effects of the “Machine who changed the world.” Rather they are the outcomes produced by automakers and other leading industries, who have pursued a strategy intended to maximize profitability by thereby attempting to change "the Machine." When Womack, Jones, and Roos wrote The Machine that Changed the World in 1990, Japanese automakers, and Toyota in particular, were applying the principles of lean production. However, the outcomes and power of lean principles were still unproven, and they had not been applied outside of the automobile industry, yet. Today, surveys on the working conditions within Italian FIAT Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Groups plants illustrate that lean principles may be problematic.

Keywords

• work organization
• automotive industry
• total quality management
• high automation
• digitalization