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Fordism and Post-Fordism

20th century ! the organization of the production of goods and services changed

! and it influenced the extent to which workers were alienated and skilled
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Lipietz (1992)
Defined Fordism as an industrial production system with 3 interrelated meanings
1
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Production system characterized by mass consumption
3
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Fordism manufacturing system was pioneered by Henry Ford in the first 2 decades of the 20th century
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8 million T cars produced
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Made of 93 buildings, with over 100,000 workers employed in 1930s
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He devised a production system that took advantage of the unskilled mass of workers
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Def
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However the speed of the assembly line soon stressed and overwhelmed workers, who felt alienated
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Fordist model of production was embedded with a national growth regime
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Ford made luxury goods affordable for everyone (raised the standards of
living) ! Two institutions supporting mass consumption:
- Class compromise between K and L (UAM agreement GM in 1950: high wages for efficiency)
- Keynes welfare state: fiscal a monetary policies for higher AD

Adopted by most economies worldwide: France, Germany
Advantages and disadvantages of industrial Fordism



GM introduced general-purpose machinery and decentralized, batch production
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Ford model T system (1913-1927):
Fordism (1927-1970s)
- Semi-skilled workers
- Semi-skilled workers
- High wages
- High wages
- Standardized part and products
- Moving assembly line
- Single-purpose machinery
- Vertical integration/ internal labor markets
- Moving assembly line

- Simplification of work via taylorized tasks
Changes in the production of cars:
- Vertical integration: the company owns the
- Standardized parts but diversified products
supply chain
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- Fordism saturated the market, now consumers want more diversified goods
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post-Fordism distinction is an old debate
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Japanese model TOYOTA
! neo-Taylorist model: retains some element but changes some
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! Still extreme standardization ! Job rationing and multi-skilling workers operating a flexible assembly line
! Non-standardized parts and great variety of high quality products
! “Kaizen” = continuous improvement
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Fordist elements: task fragmentation, assembly line production, standardization and special purpose technology
Post-Fordist elements: demand driven, flow production






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