In response to increased competition from producers throughout the world and to more volatile patterns of consumer demand, industrial firms in the U.S. and elsewhere have developed new forms of "flexible production" that allow them to quickly adjust to changes in demand. The abilities of U.S. firms to maintain a competitive position in an increasingly interdependent global economy will depend to a great extent on how well they pioneer and adopt new, more efficient forms of production. These new forms of production have dramatic impacts on the location of production, which in turn affects social, economic, and demographic development in regions where industrial operations are established, grow, or decline. Social and management scientists have examined the general character of the new forms of flexible industrial production, but the locational ramifications of these changes have been examined only in isolated case studies focusing on single regions. This project will build on work already undertaken in Mexico and Europe to compare how different forms of flexible production have been adopted and have altered the geography of production for automobile companies in the U.S., England, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Data on economic conditions, policies, and company operations will be gathered and analyzed, and lengthy interviews with high-ranking executives of about a dozen automobile manufacturers will provide the basis for a controlled assessment of how different companies have responded to different socio-economic and market conditions. The results of this project are expected to be presented in a book that will compare flexible production and its geographic impacts in at least seven nations. This project will generate better understandings of how automobile companies and other manufacturers have adapted to changes in markets and other economic forces and of how different forms of flexible production affect patterns of development and economic activity. To the extent that the success of other forms of operation can be gauged within the context of broader socio-economic and market settings, the information gathered in this report should facilitate more effective decision making corporate executives and publicly accountable decision makers. This carefully constructed comparative analysis also will provide a basis for testing some of the new theories about industrial operations, economic development, and urban location that have been formulated recently by scholars in geography and related disciplines.
