Cosmopod Modern Industry and Prospects for Socialism
Nov 20, 2025
Dónal Ó Coisdealbha, a director in process control at a multinational electrical factory and an advocate for innovative labor systems, dives into the connections between Toyota's Production System and socialism. He highlights how decentralizing control fosters cooperative labor relations essential for efficiency. Dónal discusses the importance of teams owning their processes, reducing managerial interference, and the role of algorithms in staffing. He envisions a future where industries work collaboratively rather than competitively, suggesting that socialism could revamp production systems for the better.
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Complexity Breaks Centralized Control
- Modern production complexity outstrips central planning and Taylorism's control model.
- Toyota solved this by pushing production control and improvement to line workers using pull systems.
Pull Systems Turn Consumption Into Signals
- Pull (Kanban) systems make consumption trigger replenishment and provide implicit scheduling information.
- Local synchronization signals propagate upstream and allow each step to self-regulate within complex supply chains.
Algedonic Signals Create Transparent Accountability
- Algedonic signals (visual alerts) escalate problems and force accountability across hierarchies.
- These signals turn events and reactions into the raw data for continuous improvement cycles.
