Coping with Variety
Flexible Productive Systems for Product Variety in the Auto Industry
Published on 24. December 1999
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-0-7546-1115-8 (ISBN)
Description
Certain observers of the automobile industry consider that "lean production" is the one best way for the car makers to implement a productive organization in order to provide consumers with the variety of products. The authors do not agree with this assertation. The present volume will attempt to demonstrate that. First, product variety is not directly associated with lean production, in part because it already existed in the Western countries before the Toyota production system had ever made its appearance here; second, other industrial models are capable of managing product variety as is lean production, not only are there many examples of this in the past, but in contemporary America and in Europe, other systems are already in use; third, the Toyota production system itself has not yet been finished, it is still changing. The contributors to this volume participated in the programme "Emergence of New Industrial Models" (1992-95) organized by the international scientific network GERPISA.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
figures, tables, index
Dimensions
Height: 159 mm
Width: 223 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7546-1115-8 (9780754611158)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Introduction: product variety, productive organization and industrial models. Part 1 Pathways to flexible mass production: GM and the evolving industrial organization of American automobile manufacturing in the interwar years; product variety in the French automobile industry - a look through the past; the progressive emergence of product variety in the Japanese automobile industry; the historical evolution of product variety in the auto industry - an international comparative study. Part 2 Alternative flexible production systems for product variety: beyond flexibility - Toyota's robust process-flow architecture; a flexible organization for mini-lot production - the emergence of mini car makers in Japan; developments in assembly system design - the volvo experience; flexibility through modularity - experiments with fractal production in Brazil and in Europe. Part 3 Managing flexible production systems: capability building and over-adaptation - a case of "fat design" in the Japanese auto industry; supplier relations and performance in Europe, Japan and the US -the effect of the voice/exit choice; concurrent engineering and industrial learning - a comparison of French and Japanese component suppliers; the production, distribution, and repair of automobiles - new relationships and new competencies; inter-firm relationships and industrial models.