Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12.9
Dearborn, Michigan.
The industrial complex of
the Ford River Rouge Plant is shown in this photo-
graph, which was taken in the 1940s.
© Alamy.
he termed
agglomeration
. When a substantial number of
enterprises cluster in the same area, as happens in a large
industrial city, Weber held that the industries can assist
each other through shared talents, services, and facilities.
For example, all manufacturers need offi ce furniture and
equipment. One or more offi ce equipment store in a city
could provide supplies for all industries in the area. As
such, agglomeration can make a big-city location more
attractive, potentially overcoming higher transportation
or labor costs.
as needed to meet customer demand. The term
fl exible
production systems
is used to describe this state of affairs
because fi rms can pick and choose among a multitude of
suppliers and production strategies in distant places, and
then quickly shift their choices in response to adjustments
in production costs or consumer demand. These systems
are thus designed to respond to consumers who want the
newest/best/greatest offering or a custom offering that
helps distinguish them from other consumers.
Capitalism continues as an economic system not
only because people consume but also because producers
continue to promote and respond to consumer demand.
They do this by adapting to changing consumer prefer-
ences and by commodifying goods. Through the process
of
commodifi cation
, goods that were not previously
bought, sold, and traded gain a monetary value and are
bought, sold, and traded on the market. A new good, such
as a mobile tablet, starts at a high price and becomes
somewhat of a status symbol because of its high cost. The
longer the mobile tablet is on the market and the greater
the number of fi rms producing mobile tablets, the lower
the price drops. Eventually, companies move the pro-
duction of mobile tablets to lower the price of production
and thus the price of the good, in order to compete.
Changes in the production of a good over time take place
as part of a
product life cycle
.
Flexible Production and Product Life Cycle
Fordist production was based on both mass production
and mass consumption. Money fl owed through the world-
economy as consumers purchased like items often manu-
factured in large-scale complexes. As the global economy
became more integrated and transportation costs
decreased, the advantages of concentrating production in
large-scale complexes declined. As a result, in the latter
third of the twentieth century many enterprises began
moving toward a
post-Fordist
, fl exible production model.
The post-Fordist model refers to a set of production pro-
cesses in which the components of goods are made in dif-
ferent places around the globe and then brought together
