Delineating comparative flexibility in car assembly: The problem of 'wide selection'

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

Volumn 5, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 18-30

  Coffey, Dan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Flexibility; Lead times; Model specifications; Product stocks; Wide selection

Indexed keywords

BENCHMARKING; MARKETING; MODEL AUTOMOBILES; PRODUCT DESIGN; SALES; SPECIFICATIONS;

FLEXIBILITY; LEAD TIMES; MODEL SPECIFICATIONS; PRODUCT STOKES; WIDE SELECTION;

LIGHT WEIGHT VEHICLES;

EID: 19344370088     PISSN: 14709511     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2005.006877     Document Type: Article

References (13)

1. Asanuma, B. (1994) 'Co-ordination between production and distribution in a globalizing network of firms: assessing flexibility achieved in the Japanese automobile industry', in Aoki, M. and Dore, R. (Eds.): The Japanese Firm: Sources of Competitive Strength, Oxford University Press, see especially, in this context, pp.121-124. Although the term 'wide selection' is not employed, Asanuma focuses squarely on 'orderable variations' for cars built up in a single assembly sequence.
2. Bernstein, J.S. (1997) Toyoda automatic looms and toyota automobiles', in McCraw, T.M. (Ed.): Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Harvard University Press, p.435, which argues that Toyota reacted to reduced sales in the 1990s by cutting back on 'available options'. The response noted by Bernstein is consistent with Toyota's marketing history more generally. The extent to which Japanese firms faced marketing difficulties in the 1990s is discussed in
3. Oliver, N., Ikeda, M., Nakagawa, Y. and Primost, D. (2001) Trends in production and product development in the Japanese automotive industry', International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, Vol. 1, No. 1.
4. Dicken, P. (2003) Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century, Fourth Edition, Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 107-112,363-364. For a general discussion of globalisation and vertical relations in the car industry that acknowledges Dicken's contribution but which takes a rather different tack on a number of points, see
5. Coffey, D. and Tomlinson, P.R. (2003) 'Globalisation, vertical relations and the j-mode firm', Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Fall, pp.117-144.
6. Kaplinsky, R. (1988) 'Restructuring the capitalist labour process: some lessons for the car industry' Cambridge Journal of Economics, p.456. A similar interest is apparent in many of the sources cited in this paper, including White (1971), Shiomi (1995) and Asanuma (1994).
7. Krafcik, J.F. (1988) 'Complexity and flexibility in motor vehicle assembly: a worldwide perspective', IMVP International Policy Forum, May, Massachusetts. In this little noticed survey Krafcik ranks Japan as most 'restricted' in total specification counts for cars assembled, with North America occupying an intermediate position, and European (luxury) firms offering 'billions' of specifications. It is worth noting that Krafcik does not pursue the question addressed in this paper, concerning the relationship between width of selection and the determination of finished product stocks and customer lead times, perhaps as a consequence of an expressed conviction that 'customisation' strategies would tend to disappear as Western firms copy companies like Toyota.
8. Lyddon, D. (1996) 'The myth of mass production and the mass production of myth', Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, March.
9. The reference (ibid p.82) is to Drucker, P. (1955) The Practice of Management, Heinemann. Drucker is describing mass production in industry in general.
10. Rae, J.B. (1965) The American Automobile: A Brief History, University of Chicago Press, p.200.
11. Shiomi, H. (1995) 'The formation of assembler networks in the automobile industry: the case of Toyota Motor Company (1966-1980)', in Shiomi, H. and Wada, K. (Eds.): Fordism Transformed: The Development of Production Methods in the Automobile Industry, Oxford University Press, p.38. Toyota's first full-line, launched after local experimentation by consignment assemblers, initially comprised '48 different combinations of engine, body and transmission', which expanded 'with the inclusion of different interiors, exteriors, and paint colours', to yield (initially) 332 finished model specifications (see ibid). While accepting the usefulness of the phrase 'wide-selection', it should be noted that in some cases variety can exist even where individual customers are not presented with a choice, as for example where cars are built in both left hand and right hand side drive to be sold in different national territories. This, however, is a wholly natural extension to practical application of the term, and it is a qualification that we will take as granted in the discussion that follows.
12. Walker, C., Guest, R. and Turner, A. (1956) The Foreman on the Assembly Line, Harvard University Press, describing a US assembly plant in the 1950s (also cited in Lyddon, note (1996), ibid).
13. White, L.J. (1971) The Automobile Industry Since 1945, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, p.189. The passage cited is from an article by Hal Higden (p.97), which goes on to make a playful comparison between Ford and GM vis-à-vis the proliferation of specifications.