Bill Peters
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-03-17Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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but the difference in productivity between Europe and Toyota is very great indeed.
The rate of exploitation in Toyota is absolutely brutal, consistently reaching the limits of physical endurance.
I watched assembly workers doing jobs which were more like an exercise in gymnastics than a work effort in a car plant. I did not see a single worker even pause for a few seconds during a work period for the whole time I was in the plant.
An overall comparison with BL is interesting. Structurally the two companies are very similar. The Toyota labour force is only slightly larger 54,000 as against BL's 47,000. The processes are similar. Each manufactures the engines (most of them), the transmissions (most of them), builds the body, paints and assembles the car. Toyota buys in 70% of components, which is only slightly more than BL. The technical level in assembly is about the same. In bodybuild Toyota is rather more automated.
Exploitation
Some BL cars, like the Rover and the Jaguar, are a lot bigger and more complicated. But, having taken those factors into account, compare the production BL produces less than 750,000 vehicles per year. Toyota produces The factor overwhelmingly responsible for figures like that is the incredibly high rate of exploitation achieved in Japan -rate which western manufacturers stand no chance of equalling, despite* all their attacks on the unions.
It is no wonder that the world car manufacturers are interested in Japanese management techniques.
After visiting the factory
Scan page 6
Report by Anne Marie Sweeney (acting chair, Oxfordshire district acti committee against NHS and Debbie Cameron 124, 1983, Page