Post Fordism/Flexible Production

When/Where

The transition from fordism to flexible production or post fordism began in the mid 1970s as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and the 1970s economic instability. This took place in advanced industrial economies, most notably, Japan, the US, and Western Europe.

What

Post Fordism is a modern economic model that focuses on being flexible instead of mass producing the same thing. Instead of using long assembly lines to make millions of identical products, companies used flexible production, using machines and smaller teams of workers that can quickly change what they are making to keep up with new demands.

Why/how

This happened due to the shift of consumer demand away from identical mass produced goods and towards variety. Inefficiency and global competition also played a major role as holding large inventories was very expensive during times of inflation and costs tended to decrease with flexible factories. Additionally, strong unions and higher wages made workers more expensive, which led to a demand for more flexible production because machines have a fixed cost.

Post Fordism is important because it changed industrialization from “one big factory” into a globalized network of production. Instead of everything being made in a single city, flexible production lets companies split work across different countries to save money and create varied products quickly.

This is why you can buy custom products from all over the world, and why the economy is so interconnected. This means that a delay in one part of the world can stop production everywhere else too.