Cars: Analysis, History, Cases

ISBN: 1571818502

Author: Williams, Karel

Condition: New

Product Description Through developing an original analytical framework that, for the first time, systematically relates productive, market and financial variables, the authors are able to rewrite the history of the car business since Henry Ford. Review "... an important study."    The Guardian From the Back Cover Car manufacturing involves the movement of large numbers of heavy, awkward objects incorporating some 20,000 parts, through a large number of short cycles. As to be expected the constant flow of the processes involved is disrupted by both the inherent complexities of production and those of market restrictions. This study, a unique blend of analysis, history and case studies, not only characterizes the essence of car manufacturing but also explains the links between production, market conditions and financial results and constraints. At the same time, it challenges fashionable views on the car industry and rejects the current preference for facile dichotomies (e.g. mass production vs. lean production; Japan vs. America; freedom vs. regulation). However, it also shows that the failure of BMC, the largest failure in the industry to date, cannot be attributed to its incomplete adoption of the best system. Ford and Toyota were exceptionally successful in their production organization but their solutions had more in common than is generally acknowledged, and those solutions also required exceptional market conditions for their successful implementation. About the Author Karel Williams teaches at the Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Manchester.John Williams is Professor at the Department of Economics and Agricultural Economics, University of Wales at Aberystwyth.Colin Haslam and Sukhdev Johal direct the Business Policy Group at the East London Business School, University of East London.