Introduction

Faced with global competition, the Iron and Steel Corporation of South Africa (ISCOR), previously a parastatal specifically set up to produce steel for the South African economy under apartheid, employed a strategy of lean production from the late 1980s. The strategy involved technological changes, work reorganisation and privatisation. In 2006, ISCOR came under the ownership of the global steel transnational ArcelorMittal International.

Lean production has the following elements:

• • making optimal use of inputs such as raw materials, labour and technology;

• • using technology in order to improve the quality of products and reduce waste in the production process;

• • producing products based on customer orders and specifications;

• • making changes in plant layout to ensure efficient use of space;

• • minimising stock-piling of raw materials and products in the plant;

• • using computer technology as a tool for managing customer orders, raw materials, labour and the entire production process;

• • minimising the defects in products to improve the quality of the products (Barchiesi 1997; Mashilo 2010; Womack et al 1990).

According to Shah and Ward (2007:800):

Overbeek (2003) locates lean production and technological changes in production within the economic and ideological agenda of capital and neoliberal globalisation, and argues that these strategies undermine the interests of workers and the poor. He argues:

Lean production at ArcelorMittal's Vanderbijlpark plant had negative consequences for the workers. The lean production strategy led to a drastic reduction of the workforce and changes in the nature of the work and skills in the company. This chapter shows that even skilled workers were retrenched as part of the aim of lean production through technological change. The motivation behind these retrenchments was not just lack of skills and low levels of formal education of workers in the plant.