Manufacturing Modernisation in Brazil: Scope and Direction in the Metal Products, Machinery and Equipment Industry

Abstract

Among developing nations, Brazil has one of the largest and most diversified manufacturing sectors, developed over the last four decades. Over this period, however, and especially during the last twenty years, much has changed in the way companies organise their manufacturing operations and compete in the marketplace. The lean production concept of manufacturing, developed in Japan by Toyota, is rapidly spreading to the West. The increase in global competition, coupled with the perception that lean production is a superior form of organisation, has contributed to this rapid diffusion (see, for example, Womack, Jones, and Roos, 1990). The challenge before Brazilian manufacturing firms, in the face of such an international change, has been to cope with this shift in the manufacturing practice paradigm, at the same time as significant changes in domestic economic policies have been forcing them to adopt a new competitive stance.