Fordism Transformed: The Development of Production Methods in the Automobile Industry (review)

In his introduction to Fordism Transformed, Haruhito Shiomi notes that in 1916 the United States produced one million cars, a figure that no other country reached until 1954. Part of the reason for America’s numerical superiority was the prior existence of an affluent, geographically dispersed market. On the supply side, the needs of this market were met by a collection of production techniques often subsumed under the term “Fordism.” The most obvious element of the system was the assembly line that Henry Ford introduced in 1914. This was complemented by other production practices antedating the assembly line: product standardization; interchangeable parts; specialized gauges, jigs, and fixtures; machine tools; and the extensive use of unskilled and semiskilled labor. Fordist practices are still the foundation of automobile manufacture, but, like any complex technological system, they have been extensively modified as the industry and its environment have changed.

Fordism Transformed charts the evolution of automobile manufacture in twelve essays that explore the application and modification of Fordism in many parts of the world. Most deal with one particular country, although a few compare the experiences of two nations. Four contributions center on Japan: how the “flow production” method was introduced at Toyota (Kazuo Wada), the formation of subcontract assembly networks (Haruhito Shiomi), the development of quality control circles (Izumi Nonaka), the evolution of supplier-manufacturer relationships (Takahiro Fujimoto). Many of the remaining essays are in effect short histories of automobile manufacture in particular countries: Sweden (Nils Kinch), France (Patrick Fridenson), Italy (Stefano Musso), East and West Germany (Werner Abelshauser), and China (Chunli Lee). The collection also includes tightly focused pieces on more specific aspects of automobile manufacture. David Hounshell looks into the planning and execution of automation at Ford’s Cleveland engine plant. Timothy R. Whister analyzes the manufacture of automotive niche products in Britain, with passing references to Japan. Wayne A. Lewchuk discusses how gender images were used by Ford as managerial strategies in Britain and the United States.

The development of mass-production techniques and the nature of assembly-line work are not exactly unexplored areas. Nevertheless, the multinational scope of the collection allows the reader to compare the technological imperatives of mass production with other influences on the choice of production methods. Some of this emerges in Whister’s contribution, which describes how Britain’s shop-floor-based engineering culture blended nicely with the production of niche products such as sports cars. Unfortunately for the British car industry, the introduction of more sophisticated volume-production methods led to catastrophe for both product and profitability (remember the pathetic Triumph TR7?). Similarly, Lewchuk’s essay notes why a gender-specific managerial strategy was effectively used in the United States but not in Great Britain.

On the whole, however, the book represents something of a lost opportunity, as most of the essays say little about the social and cultural forces that have impinged on the development of automobile manufacture in various parts of the world. For example, the development of Fordism in the United States was in part motivated by the use of an ethnically heterogeneous labor force, yet this is never mentioned in any of the essays. The development of close working relationships between Japanese manufacturers and their suppliers is noted by several contributors, but the relationships are analyzed in purely economic terms. Nothing is said about the deep cultural roots of hierarchical but cooperative relationships in Japan. And, rather strangely, there is no mention whatever about attempts in Sweden and elsewhere to develop alternatives to the assembly line. Nor does anyone comment about flexible manufacturing technologies that obviate the need for rigid standardization and long production runs.

Although its scope is rather narrow, Fordism Transformed provides much information about the history of car manufacture in the major automobile-producing nations. Although it says little about past and present alternatives to conventional mass-production methods, the book is...