Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
assembly of finished products. In the case of simple products, the centre may cease
to be involved in the product any more and be engaged in researching new
products to replace those currently being made in the periphery. Product cycles
only capture individual elements in this chain of events.
The “new international division of labour” (NIDL) does not offer a much more
complete idea of the spread of industry. Since its prediction is simply the
movement of manufacturing out from the central countries to the LDCS, through
the lower labour costs involved, this schema does not account for any special
concentrations of industry, or the rise of successful industrial bases in
intermediate countries or those that do not offer simply low-cost labour. Nor
does the NIDL account for the rebirth or the survival of industries in the 'old'
industrial countries. In Germany itself, where the NIDL spectre was first raised,
statistics today show a fairly even balance in the value of textile imports against
exports, and this is the same as in 1975, the period for which the NIDL model
was created. Clothing is imported in a ratio of 3:1 over exports, the same as in
1975. Evidently, these industries have survived against the predictions of NIDL,
and for most West German industries this has been because of their improved
flexibility. Nor do the import-export ratios imply a static industry. Output value
has risen from an index value of 100 in 1975, to 235 in 1989 (van Geenhuizen &
van der Knaap 1994).
Today trends can be observed for some kinds of manufacturing production to
be organized in more flexible ways, by firms or groups of firms, and this may be
the basis for a new geography of industrial production. Many names are given to
the different forms, but two broad types may be identified here: flexible
production and flexible specialization. Both of these allow smaller volumes of
production to be handled economically, enabling rapid changes in matters such
as colour, design details, or even the processes used in manufacture. Some of
these trends may be attributable to a post-modern urge for differentiation of each
person's tastes from those of their neighbour. Fashion is certainly a dictator of
production, although this may be a feature of increasing affluence and ability to
make choices, rather than any more deep-seated changes in our world view. As
far as the actual organization of production is concerned, the whole movement is
regarded as one away from “Fordism” (the use of mass production lines, the
excessive division of labour, the manufacture of highly standardized products:
all principles endorsed by Henry Ford in developing the North American car
industry), and towards something called post-Fordism, which reverses all these
trends.
Flexible production
Taking the first type of flexibility, flexible production, we may outline several of
its distinctive features. It may be regarded as the “high-tech” version of
flexibility. It involves the use of automation in order to be able to programme
designs and rapid changes of design (computer-aided design or CAD). The
