The End of Mass production and the Emergence of the New Production System : Serial Flow to Parallel Flow

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We have researched new trends of production systems from following four points. The first is that we put our research on the transformation context of production systems since the beginning of the 20th century. The second is that we relate the change of production system to that of firm organization, and of incentive system. The third is that we focus on the relationship between production system and its social conditions when we compare Japanese situation with Swedish one. The fourth is that we clarify the characteristic of Japanese division of labor on the shop floor paying attention to the role of manufacturing engineers and supervisors. As a result of our research we have found mainly two points as follows. The first is that the part-grouping way, material handling method, the method of vocational training and etc. in Sweden have been originally developed for the purpose of high efficiency at the parallel flow assembly of standing-still stations, but they are also applicable for serial flow assembly systems which are common in the mainstream auto plants. The second is that trainers have made trainees adapt to the traditional way of working in Japanese plants, but, on the contrary trainers and scientists have radically changed the training method for trainees for the purpose of developing human cognitive potential at the Uddevalla plant in Sweden.