| La Lettre du GERPISA | no 112 (avril 1997) |
Editoriall - Michel Freyssenet
The debate about the group work plans for the second international GERPISA programme continues in this issue. Hikaru Nohara from the University of Hiroshima stresses three effects of the current movement of internationalization: the differentiated division of manufacturing by one firm between different countries, the relations between manufacturers and component suppliers and the changes in the organization of production. With regard to the last point, he considers that Honda and Toyota are interested in "completely autonomous production", which Japanese computer, video and microscope manufacturers etc. have already implemented. This would mean having one or several people mount a complete unit. Initially, due to the crisis in recruitment at the beginning of the 1980's which Toyota in particular suffered from, the interest companies showed for the experiments in work reform which Volvo carried out in the 1970's-80's, was heightened by the flexibility in production and savings in investment that the reforms allowed. Flexibility in production and savings in investment were to become essential objectives because of the fragmentation of demand and the models'reduced life span, both of which were accentuated by the internationalization of the market. In the "Factory Visit" rubric, Koichi Shimizu confirms that Toyota is pursuing its programme of segmenting its assembly lines and introducing intermediary stock when changing models.
At the same time, the European automobile industry has made it public that it is in overcapacity. Renault's announcement that it was closing its factory in Vilvoorde in Belgium is the most spectacular example of this. A combination of several factors inevitably led to this situation, notably: systematic increases in production, the externalization of a lot of manufacturing and the restrictive budgetary policies of European governments which depress automobile markets on a long-term basis. In such a context, André Vandorpe wonders about the future of automobile factories in Belgium. Who benefited from the movement of externalization of certain manufacturing in Europe? Calculations made by David Sadler and presented at the GERPISA-France workday on March 14 (see "Research Questions" by Nicolas Hatzfeld) tend to show that it is the first tier suppliers who benefited, seeing as the manufacturers did not manage to keep control of the chain of value.
You have probably already received your enrollment form for the International Colloquium in June, and the provisional programme. Besides the papers we have asked network members for, for the session on companies' internationalization trajectories, the principal theme of the colloquium this year, we have received about thirty propositions, twenty five of which were retained. They will be published in Actes de la Rencontre and will be discussed in sessions which will be held concurrently.