Valorizzare il lavoro per rilanciare l’impresa (‘Developing work to relaunch the company’)

DESCRIPTION
Factory work in the twentieth century was developed following the Fordist Taylorist model symbolised by the repeated elementary operations infinite assembly line. But in the 1970s, with the transition from mechanics to electronics, the reduction of the life cycle of products and the growing international competition, it became necessary to seek new forms of work organisation. Olivetti identifies the solution in the integrated assembly units, or production islands, formed by 15-20 workers responsible for the quality and testing of a product: no longer a work chain broken into the elementary operations, but an approach to work recomposed in more complex tasks that require skills and responsibility. Thousands of workers started training courses to learn new skills and adapt to the innovative organisational solutions adopted by the company. The change was the result of the studies, projects and ideals of a class of managers, technicians and workers who had absorbed the lesson of Adriano Olivetti and shared the aspiration to recompose and enhance the work context. From this positive experience, ideas arose that it is useful to reflect on also today, in terms of the need for new organisational models that, based on cooperation, knowledge and communication, are able to enhance work and the company and activate real participation in the production process. The method for designing and managing change also remains topical.

Author: Federico Butera and Giovanni De Witt
Publisher: Edizioni Il Mulino
Series: Collana di studi e Ricerche dell’Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti
Year: 2011
Language: Italian
Dimensions: 13.5 x 21 cm
Pages: 452
ISBN: 978-88-15-14991-6