The Promise and Perils of Private Voluntary Regulation: Labor Standards and Work Organization in Two Mexican Garment Factories

This paper is part of a larger project on globalization and labor standards organized by Professor Richard Locke of M.I.T.. In addition to the results presented in this paper (some of which appear as well in Monica Romis, "Beneath Corporate Codes of Conduct: What Drives Compliance in Two Mexican Garment Factories," (Masters Thesis, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, M.I.T., 2005)), the project entailed field research in China, Turkey, Europe and the United States as well as systematic analysis of Nike’s factory audits of working conditions in over 800 factories in 51 countries.What role can private voluntary regulation play in improving labor standards and working conditions in global supply chain factories? How does this system relate to and interact with other systems of labor regulation and work organization? This paper seeks to address these questions through a structured comparison of two factories supplying Nike, the world’s largest athletic footwear and apparel company. These two factories have many similarities - both are in Mexico, both are in the apparel industry, both produce more or less the same products for Nike (and other brands) and both are subject to the same code of conduct. On the surface, both factories appear to have similar employment (i.e., recruitment, training, remuneration) practices and they receive comparable scores when audited by Nike’s compliance staff. However, underlying (and somewhat obscured by) these apparent similarities, significant differences in actual labor conditions exist between these two factories. What drives these differences in working conditions? What does this imply for traditional systems of monitoring and codes of conduct? Field research conducted at these two factories reveals that beneath the code of conduct and various monitoring efforts aimed at enforcing it, workplace conditions and labor standards are shaped by very different patterns of work organization and human resource management policies

Lean service, business strategy and ABC and their impact on firm performance

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning & Control on 14 May 2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09537287.2019.159914

A produção enxuta como fator diferencial na capacidade de fornecimento de PMEs Lean production as a tool to improve the supply capability of the SMEs

Face ao processo de reestruturação produtiva que a indústria automotiva brasileira tem vivenciado, notadamente a partir dos anos 1990, e à influência da filosofia enxuta de produção neste, o presente artigo traz um estudo realizado em pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) gaúchas sobre o impacto potencial da aplicação de uma ferramenta da produção enxuta, o Mapeamento do Fluxo de Valor, na capacidade de fornecimento destas. Foram analisadas sete empresas no Estado. O resultado obtido foi uma redução geral nos tempos de estoques de 23%, o mesmo ocorrendo para o tempo de agregação de valor, reduzido em 65%. Pode-se dizer, portanto, que os ganhos potenciais com a aplicação das propostas apresentadas possibilitariam às empresas não somente fornecer de acordo com a demanda do cliente e em fluxo contínuo, mas também aumentar sua capacidade de fornecimento, atendendo às exigências de preço, prazo e flexibilidade.<br>The automotive industry, especially in the 90's, has been passed through a re-structure process of its productive base and supply relationship. Supporting such a process, there is a production philosophy coined lean production. This paper aims at pointing out some considerations about what could be done, regarding the production process, that may improve the supply capability of the autoparts firms in the RS state. Seven firms were analyzed and a lean production tool, the Value Stream Mapping, was applied. The results obtained were positive in all firms. The general stock reductions were of about 23%. Concerning value addition the reductions were of about 65%. Therefore, the potential gains from the implementation of the improvements suggested at Value Stream Map would make it possible not only to produce accordingly to the demand but also, to increase the supply capability of the firms