Manufacturing the Organisation of Work of the Future: A Factory Leader in Engine Production — FASA—Renault, Spain

Abstract

Academic debate and literature on technological transfers, or transplants, has tended to focus on what are considered normal or standard instances of this. That is, attention has centred on the export of new forms of work, nearly always from countries labelled central or dominant, to others somewhat imprecisely and ironically described as ‘semi-’, or even completely, peripheral. Discussion of lean production, in turn, has revolved around the question of whether, and to what extent, new forms of productive organisation now being developed conform to the model in the core companies, regions or countries. Significantly, these models are often imaginary, or what might more kindly be described as ideal types [2]. In this context, it would appear exceptional for a multinational corporation to select one of its ‘semi-peripheral’ centres to play a leading role in the experimental introduction of a series of technological and organizational innovations in its strategy to, in their own words, ‘catch up with the Japanese’. It would also appear exceptional for the mother company to turn one of these centres of work and production into a laboratory for the new organisation in the search for the model of production for the 21st century — and for the company to invest its image and sufficient financial and human resources to enable the factory to meet a challenge of this scale. Exceptional but not unheard of, since this paper focuses on just such a case: Renault’s FASA plant in Spain.