time the company wanted to add 100 men to its factory personnel, it was necessary to hire 963" in order to counteract the natural distaste the assembly line seems to have inspired. Sociological problems Sociological work has explored the social alienation and boredom that many workers feel because of the repetition of doing the same specialized task all day long. One of capitalism's most famous critics, Karl Marx, expressed in his Entfremdung theory the belief that, in order to achieve job satisfaction, workers need to see themselves in the objects they have created, that products should be "mirrors in which workers see their reflected essential nature". Marx viewed labour as a chance for people to externalize facets of their personalities. Marxists argue that performing repetitive, specialized tasks causes a feeling of disconnection between what a worker does all day, who they really are, and what they would ideally be able to contribute to society. Furthermore, Marx views these specialised jobs as insecure, since the worker is expendable as soon as costs rise and technology can replace more expensive human labour. Since workers have to stand in the same place for hours and repeat the same motion hundreds of times per day, repetitive stress injuries are a possible pathology of occupational safety. Industrial noise also proved dangerous. When it was not too high, workers were often prohibited from talking. Charles Piaget, a skilled worker at the LIP factory, recalled that besides being prohibited from speaking, the semi-skilled workers had only 25 centimeters in which to move. Industrial ergonomics later tried to minimize physical trauma. See also Modern Times (film) Final Offer a documentary film about the 1984 UAW/CAW contract negotiations shows working life on the floor of the GM Oshawa Ontario Car Assembly Plant (Watch Online) Reconfigurable manufacturing system + Flexible manufacturing system (A Post-Fordism / Lean Manufacturing based improvement/evolution on the Assembly Line model) References Footnotes Works cited External links Homepage for assembly line optimization research Assembly line optimization problems History of the assembly line and its widespread effects Cars Assembly Line Industrial processes Mass production Manufacturing buildings and structures American inventions Culture of Detroit History of science and technology in the United States Articles containing video clips Types of production ca:Producció en cadena