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From Lean Production to Mass Customisation: Recent Developments in the Australian Automotive Industry

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Flexibility at Work

Abstract

Given its relatively marginal status as a manufacturing economy it may come as a surprise to learn that Australia has a well established and highly internationalised automotive manufacturing industry dominated by leading US and Japanese corporations. Automotive manufacturing began early in Australia with the Ford Motor Company commencing full local manufacturing in 1928, to be followed by General Motors-Holden in 1949, Mitsubishi in 1977 and Toyota in 1979. The more recently arrived Japanese manufacturers have been known to refer to the Australian vehicle industry as a ‘bonsai’ industry; small but well-developed in all its detail. This bonsai industry is hardly thriving, with Australia accounting for less than 0.5 per cent of annual global vehicle production, but is, nevertheless, striving to cope with the rigours of globalisation.

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Authors
  1. Richard Cooney
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  2. Graham Sewell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Belgium

    Valeria Pulignano (Professor in Sociology of Labour and Industrial Relations) (Professor in Sociology of Labour and Industrial Relations)

  2. Department of HRM, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Paul Stewart (Professor of the Sociology of Work and Employment) (Professor of the Sociology of Work and Employment)

  3. Centre for Employment Studies Research, University of the West of England, UK

    Andy Danford (Professor of Employment Relations) (Professor of Employment Relations)

Copyright information

© 2008 Richard Cooney and Graham Sewell

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Cooney, R., Sewell, G. (2008). From Lean Production to Mass Customisation: Recent Developments in the Australian Automotive Industry. In: Pulignano, V., Stewart, P., Danford, A., Richardson, M. (eds) Flexibility at Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230581937_6

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