Beyond Mass Production Flexible Production Systems And Manufacturing Performance In Thw World Auto Industry

By John Paul MacDuffie.

Examines the controversial Japanese model of lean production and its impact on work and workers in the global auto industry.

First published in 1999, this book explores pint points, compares and dates the development of product differentiation and variety. This book also analyses’ how firms have embraced a variety of ways of efficiently managing this verity though production, the design of the product as well as in the relations with the suppliers and distributors.

Asks whether and to what effect the widespread adoption of digital technology has led to large-scale or structural economic changes in business.

Nearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bellwether for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself.

. Topical . Written by leading Japanese, America, and European scholars . Based on proceedings of prestigious international conference Japan is now the world's largest producer of cars but it only began to catch up with its competitors after World War II by studying and modifying the Ford system of mass production implemented first in the USA in the early part of the century. Other countries have also developed the system in their own ways with varying degrees of success. The papers in this volume will examine and compare the experiences of different countries in modifying the Ford system, and the impact of the quality control movement' and lean production in Japan."

The distinguished contributors to this volume discuss the global marketplace; labor movements and industrial restructuring; international trends in work organization in the auto industry; linkages between economic development strategies, industrial relations policy and other related topics.

Comprises 16 chapters subsumed under four major subject areas: unions, collective bargaining and dispute resolution; human resources management; labour market research; and the regulation of labour- management relations