Redefining the Toyota Production System: the European side of the story

Abstract

Trapped into the sterile opposition between the empowerment and the management by stress approaches, the debate on the Toyota Production System has failed to provide a clear understanding of the social and organisational conditions that make this system viable. By focusing on the work organisation, the market configuration and the industrial infrastructure of the European transplants of Toyota, this paper proposes an alternative approach centred on the notions of ‘contextualisation’ and ‘human agency.’