. 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."
After the Second World War, the economics of the western capitalist countries were based on a production system called fordism, but in the mid 1970s this system began to break down, and it has been in crisis since. But does resolving this crisis imply a complete break with the past, notably with the principles of Taylor and Ford? Based on an analysis of the transformations currently taking place in several international companies, this book reveals the complexities and subtleties of today's transitions.
A new global history of Fordism from the Great Depression to the postwar era As the United States rose to ascendancy in the first decades of the twentieth century, observers abroad associated American economic power most directly with its burgeoning automobile industry. In the 1930s, in a bid to emulate and challenge America, engineers from across the world flocked to Detroit. Chief among them were Nazi and Soviet specialists who sought to study, copy, and sometimes steal the techniques of American automotive mass production, or Fordism. Forging Global Fordism traces how Germany and the Soviet Union embraced Fordism amid widespread economic crisis and ideological turmoil. This incisive book recovers the crucial role of activist states in global industrial transformations and reconceives the global thirties as an era of intense competitive development, providing a new genealogy of the postwar industrial order. Stefan Link uncovers the forgotten origins of Fordism in Midwestern populism, and shows how Henry Ford's antiliberal vision of society appealed to both the Soviet and Nazi regimes. He explores how they positioned themselves as America's antagonists in reaction to growing American hegemony and seismic shifts in the global economy during the interwar years, and shows how Detroit visitors like William Werner, Ferdinand Porsche, and Stepan Dybets helped spread versions of Fordism abroad and mobilize them in total war. Forging Global Fordism challenges the notion that global mass production was a product of post–World War II liberal internationalism, demonstrating how it first began in the global thirties, and how the spread of Fordism had a distinctly illiberal trajectory.
In 1919, the Ford Motor Company – the world’s largest automobile manufacturer – decided to make a small Nordic country its bridgehead to continental Europe. Denmark was a good choice geographically and because of the country’s favourable customs policy. During the 1920s, Ford’s iconic Model T was assembled in Copenhagen, with large quantities exported from there to most of north-eastern Europe. The innovative manufacturing technology employed in Copenhagen was the same as that used in Ford’s American assembly plants, and the Copenhagen plant was actually designed by Albert Kahn – the architect behind Ford’s famous Highland Park factory in Detroit, Michigan. The Danish Ford Motor Company successfully continued production throughout the recession of the 1930s, the German occupation of Denmark in 1940–1945 and the Cold War and economic boom of the 1950s. The Copenhagen factory closed in 1966, obliged to give way to Ford’s larger operations elsewhere in Europe. Henry Ford’s pioneering principles of mass production went beyond mere technology. The large-scale serial manufacturing of uniform products was also a way of fulfilling his vision of an affluent consumer society. But as Fordism was relocated across the Atlantic, the rigorous discipline and fast-paced work routines applied in Detroit were challenged by local traditions, shifting market conditions and, most notably, a labour movement that was far more powerful than its American counterpart. Between Denmark and Detroit offers a detailed history of the Danish Ford Motor Company, but the book also has a wider scope, elucidating the concept of Fordism and how it was transformed by its move across the Atlantic. Lars K. Christensen holds a PhD in history. He is the author of several publications on labour history and industrial heritage. Presently, he is head of research and cultural heritage at the ROMU museums group.
Examines the rise of East Asia as one of the world's economic power centres from three temporal perspectives: 500 years, 150 years and 50 years, each denoting an epoch in regional and world history and providing a vantage point against which to
This book focuses on the contributions of organized labor in the development and evolution of workplace human services in America and eight countries around the world. Beginning with an overview of labor-sponsored social service programs, it showcases the achievements by major trade unions in the arena of human services, from inception to present. The textbook concludes with a summary chapter which conceptualizes and summarizes current achievements and forecasts the future role of the labor movement in the delivery of workplace human services in the United States and abroad. It will be of use to those involved in the labor movement as well as practitioners in the fields of social work, human services, and labor and industrial relations. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health.
The patterns, which are becoming ever more prevalent, can be categorized as low-wage, human resource management, Japanese-oriented, and joint team-based strategies."--BOOK JACKET. "The authors go on to show that these changing employment patterns are closely related to the decline of unions and growing income inequality. Drawing on plant-level evidence of emerging employment practices, they provide a comprehensive analysis of changes in employment systems and labor-management relations."--BOOK JACKET.
Tells the story of the age-old battle between automakers for dominance in the market and the current race to build the car of the future, and looks at how America has become a contender in this global contest.
