Peter K. writes:
>My two bits: I doubt there's any >necessary connection between
>coercion and high technology. >Technology can be developed
>either to genuinely help workers >and raise productivity or it can
>be developed for management's >benefit which often includes a
>deskilling of the workers who use >it and maybe even a loss
>of productivity.
In the era of the strong yen (but weak stock market), Japanese manufacturers are typically of two minds about their impressive technology. Many went deep, deep into plant automation, but as the strong yen drove their production overseas to Mexico and SE Asia they found out something: the abundant cheap labor there could build something like a car or even a TV set much more cheaply than the expensive, robotized Japanese plants (which are expensive to both equip and then maintain). The Japanese approach to service industries even in Japan also believes in using lots of cheap labor; a typical restaurant shift will have half the floor space and twice the number of people than at a US restaurant (where apparently even minimum wage labor is considered too expensive).
There are counterexamples in manufacturing. Kai razor took automation to the deep, deep max and emerged able to make safety razors better but cheaper than the cheapest of imports (you don't know hell til you have a Mediterranean beard and poorly made razor to shave it with).
(On the other other hand, how Gillette, which dwarfs Kai, managed to make and then flood the world with its most expensive razor blade is an altogether different story.)
Some ask why many Japanese companies maintain any factories in Japan at all. One reason is they fear the loss of expertise in how to make things at the places in their home culture, closest to headquarters--anyone who has been in manufacturing knows there is as much if not more to be learned in the actual making of things than in research in labs. The other reason, perhaps, is to counter wild currency swings (this hasn't happened a lot in the past decade but collective memory about such things is a longer than that at a Japanese company). And, what's more, although they have no compunction about laying off or restructuring workers overseas, it's a lot trickier to layoff or restructure full-time, permanent workers in Japan.
Charles Jannuzi