Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
machines used in manufacture may be computer-controlled (computer-aided
manufacture or CAM), and are in consequence themselves flexible, their tasks
being programmable by an operator. In the simpler versions of CAD, this
involves automation for individual machines. In the most advanced examples,
there is a wholly automated system of manufacture, or what has been called a
“flexible manufacturing system”.
Firms engaged in this kind of production move from the search for economies
of scale (i.e. those obtained from very large runs of a single item) to economies of
scope, obtained from producing several different products from the same
machinery, switching easily between them according to demand. Some of these
economies of scope may be obtained through combining with different outside
firms in a network.
One well-known form of flexible production is the system entitled “just in
time”, in which the handling of supplies of components is of essential
importance. Components are not stocked at the factory, but brought in from
nearby factories on demand to meet the requirements of production for the next
few hours. This system is typified by Toyota in their car manufacturing plant at
Toyota City, on the outskirts of Nagoya in Japan. Here the central assembly
plant is surrounded by a halo of component manufacturers, largely run by
independent companies, although their main contract is with Toyota and they
work in a keiretsu, a strongly linked set of companies which work on a more
cooperative than competitive basis (Arnold & Bernard 1989). Toyota requires
these suppliers to send regular small deliveries of components to the main plant,
in some cases several times a day, and the assembly lines depend on a
continuous inflow of components.
The system has the advantage of little waste, since faulty products may be
identified at once and their supply stopped. It also provides for easy quality
control as all components can be tracked immediately to their source. Further
advantages are the flexibility of output, in types and quantities, as a rapid switch
can be made between two different products used in different models. A
fundamental advantage is, of course, the very low inventory costs. Such a system
clearly depends on a closely linked network of factories with good transport and
communications between them. At Toyota, lorries arrive through the day with
small deliveries of a host of items, and the flows are subject to continual
modifications.
Such a system has a definite spatial form, with subsidiaries and support
activities constituting a kind of industrial district. This is still, however, a centre
and periphery structure in miniature, the central role held by the main assembly
firm. It is also true that most of the higher order functions, such as research into
design and technological matters, as well as the general planning decisions such
as the move to new markets, are taken by the central firm. From the examples of
Japanese motor manufacturers, it is not apparent that this kind of organization of
industry will lead to any new geographical pattern. Old centres can still
establish themselves, and the effect may indeed be reconcentration of work in
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