Managing production complexity by empowering workers: six cases

Paper in proceeding, 2014

To manage high product variety many companies empower their operators. Reaching the benefits of that is connected to successfully distributing role allotments and work tasks in the complex context. The characteristic of empowerment is studied in six cases where the focus is work tasks and power to affect the company. Results indicate that the workers are, in general,responsible for more than 30% of the tasks connected to the production but that they do not always have the power to make decisions that influence the organization directly. This could increase the companies’ attractiveness as a future employer and its competitiveness.