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This article analyses the perpetuation of the social order of capitalism in two flow industries - chemistry and pharmacy. The two in-depth case studies deal with major changes in facilities and work organization. The analysis shows that: 1) engineers and managers use the division of work as a scientific tool to act on social relations and human-machine relations; 2) workers develop individual and collective resistances, in response to this technical and managerial rationality. Beyond this well-known result, the study of these actors’ discourses and practices reveals that they mobilize resources as well as critics of the division of work in sometimes contradictory discourses and attitudes. It thus contributes to the understanding of work and its regulations in the perspective of the reconfigurations of the social order of capitalism.