Lean production and disability

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, Dutch productivity rates have been driven by a shift from traditional mass production firms to lean production. It slightly counteracted the generally acknowledged procyclical productivity rates; instead of working less hard during the recession of the 1980s and 1990s, employed labor had to work harder. Because the combination of mass and craft production makes lean production very demanding on employees, it appears to be more stressful than production in a traditional firm. This possibly influenced the rise of disability in the 1980s and 1990s, when almost one‐third of disabilities were due to “mental disorders”.