Flexible Production

Flexible production, also called post-Fordism, refers to the forms of manufacturing that began to take shape and eventually become dominant throughout the late 20th century. In contrast to Fordism, flexible production allows goods to be manufactured cheaply but in small volumes as [Page 1126]well as large volumes. A flexible automation system can turn out a small batch, or even a single item, of a product as efficiently as it can a mass-assembled commodity.

Flexible production appeared, not accidentally, at the particular historical moment when the microelectronics revolution began to revolutionize manufacturing; indeed, the changes associated with the computerization of production in some respects may be seen as the response of capitalists to the crisis of profitability that accompanied the petro-crises. Flexible production also reflected the imperative of firms to increase their productivity in the face of rapidly accelerating, intense international competition.

The most important aspect of this new, or lean, system is flexibility of the production process itself, including the organization and management within the factory, and the flexibility of relationships among customers, supplier firms, and the assembly plant. In contrast to the large, vertically integrated firms typical of the Fordist economy, under flexible production, firms tend to be relatively small, relying on highly computerized production techniques to generate small quantities of goods to be sold in relatively specialized markets. Microelectronics, in essence, circumvented the need for economies of scale.

The classic technologies and organizational forms of post-Fordism include robots and just-intime inventory systems. The Japanese developed just-in-time manufacturing systems shortly after World War II to adapt U.S. practices to car manufacturing. The technique was pioneered by the Toyota Corporation (and hence is sometimes called “Toyotaism”), which obviated the need for large, expensive warehouses of parts (the “just-in-case” inventory system). Just-in-time refers to a method of organizing immediate manufacturing and supply relationships among companies to reduce inefficiency and increase time economy. Stages of the manufacturing process are completed exactly when needed, according to the market, not before and not later, and parts required in the manufacturing process are supplied with little storage or warehousing time required. This system reduces idle capital and allows minimal investment so that the capital can be used elsewhere. The manufacturing run proceeds only as far as the market demands.

Inventories are very small and are only replenished to replace parts removed downstream. Workers at the end of the line are given output instructions on the basis of short-term order forecasts. They instruct workers immediately upstream to produce the part they will need just-in-time, those workers in turn instruct workers upstream to produce just-in-time, and so on. Post-Fordist approaches to production came to dominate much of the electronics sector, automobile production, and the mini-mills of the steel industry.

Flexible production is closely associated with vertical disintegration and increased subcontracting rather than “in-house” production. Many firms engaged in significant “downsizing” in the 1980s and 1990s, often ridding themselves of whole divisions of their companies to focus on their “core competencies.” A large number of companies reversed their old principles of hierarchical, bureaucratic assembly-line (Fordist) processes as they switched to customized, flexible, consumer-focused processes that can deliver personal service through niche markets at lower costs and higher speeds.

...