ISBN: 3790815780
TITLE: Automotive Production Systems and Standardisation
AUTHOR: Clarke
TOC:

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Theoretical perspective and literature 3
1.1.1 Standardisation and the labour process debate 4
1.2 Aspects of standardisation 6
1.2.1 The trend towards a standardisation of standards 6
1.2.2 De facto and fonnal standards 7
1.2.3 Standard setters and institutionalisation 8
1.2.4 Globalisation: driving force for the institutionalisation of standards 10
1.2.5 Standardisation and certification systems 11
1.3 Production systems 12
1.3.1 The industrial sociology debate an production systems 13
1.3.2 Production systems, standardisation and the theory of organisational leaming 15
1.3.3 Standardisation between control and learning: Adler and Cole versus Berggren 17
1.4 Research methods and approach 18
1.4.1 Literature and documentary review 18
1.4.2 The case study approach 19
1.4.3 Observational and survey research 20
1.5 Chapter outline 21
2 The evolution of standardisation 25
2.1 Introduction 25
2.2 Germany: the historical roots of quality standards 27
2.3 The USA: interchangeable parts and mass production 30
2.4 The rise of quality management in Japan 35
2.5 Quality management in Germany 37
2.6 The historical rise of standard setting institutions 40
2.6.1 National standards settingbodies (NSBs) 41
2.6.2 Institutionalisation of international standards - the International Standards Organization (ISO) 46
2.7 The institutionalisation of international standards for quality systems 47
2.7.1 Historical evolution of the ISO 9000 48
2.7.2 ISO 9000 - a standardised quality management system 50
2.7.3 The evolution of the ISO technical standard (TS) 16949 53
2.7.4 VDA 6.X series 53
2.7.5 QS 9000 56
2.7.6 The key differences between the ISO 9000 VDA 6.1 and QS 9000 56
2.7.7 Towards a holistic view of quality - from ISO 9000 to the Total Quality Management System (TQM) of the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) 57
2.7.8 Audits 60
2.7.9 The cost and benefits of certification 63
2.8 Critical appreciation 65
3 The history of produetion systems in the automotive industry 71
3.1 Introduction 71
3.2 The end of craft production 72
3.3 Taylorism and standardisation 74
3.3.1 Historical background 75
3.3.2 Forms and functions of standardisation in Taylorism 75
3.4 Ford's mass production: the foundation of modern production systems 78
3.4.1 Standards in mass production 79
3.4.2 Standardisation beyond the shop floor 84
3.5 The Toyota Production System (TPS) 88
3.5.1 Historical background 89
3.5.2 The evolution of the Toyota Production System in the 1980s and 1990s 94
3.5.3 The forms and functions of standardisation in the TPS 99
3.6 The reflective production system of Volvo Uddevalla 111
3.6.1 Creating the reflective production system at Uddevalla 111
3.6.2 The role and function of standardisation in the reflective production system 113
3.7 The current trend: standardised production systems 119
4 The esse of the Mereedes Benz Production System 127
4.1 Introduction 127
4.2 Case study focus, approach and structure 128
4.3 Case study background 129
4.4 Pre-merger production organisation at Mercedes-Benz 131
4.5 Pre-merger production organisation at Chrysler 134
4.6 The DaimlerChrysler Operating Model 135
4.7 The Mercedes-Benz Production System 139
4.7.1 The MPS organisation: central - plant and centre level structures 141
4.7.2 The MPS: central organisation 141
4.7.3 MPS: plant level organisation 142
4.7.4 Tlte MPS: centre level organisation 143
4.8 Implementing the MPS: the cascade training 145
4.9 The MPS-audit 149
4.9.1 Auditors and the audit procedure 151
4.9.2 MPS-audit observations 153
4.9.3 The effectiveness of audits: theory versus practice 158
4.10 The structure and content of the MPS 159
4.10.1 The MPS tools 161
4.11 The Mercedes-Benz Production System and REFA-methods 165
4.12 The Mercedes-Benz Production System and the Toyota Production System 169
5 The results of implementing the Mercedes-Benz Production System 173
5.1 Introduction 173
5.2 Research scope and methodology 174
5.3 Statistics 177
5.4 The MPS questionnaire design and content 178
5.5 Significances 181
5.5.1 The general trend of results at Production Centre Z 181
5.5.2 Sub-centre results 191
5.6 Analysis and interpretation 197
6 Conclusion 203
6.1 Research questions revisited 203
6.2 The driving forces of standardisation 204
6.3 The evolution of production systems in the automotive industry 206
6.4 Changing forms and functions of standardisation in production systems 209
6.5 The effects of standurdisation an the actors an the shop floor 211
6.6 Outlook 214
Appendig 217
Glossary of terms, symbols and abbreviations 221
Bibiliography 225
END
