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This article discusses the rise and changing nature of ‘lean production’ in Sweden and ‘lean’s’ interaction with union strategy and the demands of union members and employers. It begins with a discussion of what has characterised the Swedish work organisation debate over the past 50 years. With this as a base, we discuss significant trends in Swedish industry that provide both pitfalls and possibilities for workers and for Swedish trade union strategy. Our presumption is that such a strategy is not once and for all given, but something that must be brought up to date in relation to the societal context and altered production systems. Finally, we discuss IF Metall’s concept of ‘sustainable work’ that was established at their Congress in 2008. The title of our article, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them?’ is a provocative way to formulate the core of our analysis based on our overall understanding of lean production in Sweden. There are important implications for managers, workers and unions in countries both similar to and different from Sweden.

The concept of organizational development is of essential importance in order to maintain a sustainable industry; this can be seen in numerous articles and research projects presented in scientific magazines, books and conferences every year. In

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This paper describes a collaborative process of designing a concept of a future factory, in a three-year research project called "the Future Factory". In the paper we aim at presenting our approach and some results from the same. We argue for a resumed discussion on future work organizations, and do so through the project aim of designing a conceptual future factory. The Future Factory project may be considered somewhat different from traditional research projects, since it includes a design team consisting entirely of women. The reason for this is that Swedish manufacturing industry is heavily male-dominated in numbers, and solutions based only on their ideas thus risk being incomplete or unilateral. The approach of the project encompasses multiple perspectives of values of industrial organizations. The main method has been participatory workshops sessions, in which we have explored contents of future factories together with our stakeholders. Our joint proposal includes aspects of gender awareness, participation in change processes, control of work situations; continuous learning and development in order to become both an attractive and efficient future factory.