Assembling Toyota in Portugal

Machado, Tiago and Moniz, António (2003): Assembling Toyota in Portugal. Published in: GERPISA International Colloquium proceedings No. 11 (2003): pp. 1-11.

Abstract

A lot has been written over the last decade with regard to Toyota and the productive model associated to it (toyota-ism). And more specifically concerning the "(…) best-seller that changed the... sociological world" (Castillo, 1998: 31). But the case of Salvador Caetano’s Ovar Industrial Division (OID), that assembles Toyota light commercial vehicles in Portugal, allows us to put forward a sub-hypothesis that fits into the analysis schema proposed in the First GERPISA International Program – "In short, GERPISA members considered that the plurality of models was much a plausible hypothesis deserving testing as that of the diffusion of a unique model (…)" (Boyer, Freyssenet, 2001: 42). So we add: and within Toyota itself, is it not true that different productive models co-exist – especially when delocalised – depending, amongst other factors, on the degree of Toyota participation – in terms of capital and technology transfer – in the local company (strong or weak) and on the markets to be reached (internal or external)? If so, what work system can we expect to find in a plant that presents such peculiar characteristics as this one?

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: automotive industry; organization of work; Japan; Portugal
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J41 - Labor Contracts; L - Industrial Organization > L6 - Industry Studies: Manufacturing > L62 - Automobiles ; Other Transportation Equipment ; Related Parts and Equipment; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O14 - Industrialization ; Manufacturing and Service Industries ; Choice of Technology

References

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