Luigi Campagna’s scientific contributions

In Italy corporate restructuring crises are traditionally managed by companies through communication to the workers' representatives about the negative impacts on production structures and on workplaces. Therefore, the trade union representatives adopt defensive methods focused on minimizing the impacts on employment. The role of representatives is subordinate to that of managers who have the goal of making decisions and minimizing the interference of trade unions. Workers also play a secondary role in supporting the union in the negotiation process. In the two corporate cases studied, instead, the possibility emerges for trade union representatives to play a proactive role and to collaborate with management in an agreed solution to the crisis that is more favourable to workers. To arrive at these positive solutions, the fundamental role is played by organizational and technological innovation that significantly improves company performance, as supported by the direct participation of workers. In these cases, coordination between the factors at stake is ensured by the ability of the actors to manage a risky and complex innovative process in a shared way.

This paper tackles the problem of how to train employees to foster involvement and participation to support the implementation of Toyota Production System (TPS). To this aim, it presents the case of a training program aimed at involving workers in a TPS project, increasing their knowledge of the lean management model, and starting a discussion with them, to fine-tune the new organization, especially on the themes of versatility, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teamwork. The training program involved 450 workers of a manufacturing company, it lasted three days per participant, where activities in the classroom and in the shop floor were combined. Different didactic methods were used: theoretical lessons, group discussion and teamwork, didactic games and practical experience in the production line. Results show that the approach was successful and allowed the company to fully reap the benefits of TPS.

Vengono analizzati e discussi i risultati del lavoro del Laboratorio CISL basati sull'analisi di una ventina di casi industriali relativi all'introduzione di tecnologie abilitanti I4.0