Technological practices in the European auto industry: Exploring cases from Belgium, Germany and Portugal

António Brandão Moniz (), Bettina Johanna Krings (), Geert Van Hootegem and Rik Huys

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The relation between work organisation and technological practices in auto industry is analysed in this article. The concept of “technological practice” in this sector is used to describe the specific ways of embedding information and communication technology applications into the organizational forms and cultural patterns. This concept was developed with the Sowing project (TSER, DG XII) and that approach included either the shop floor co-operation up to the regionally based networks of companies and supporting institutions. The authors studied different sectors in the automotive firms of different European countries (Germany, Belgium and Portugal): shopfloor and production lines, design and management and the local inter-relationships. It was underlined some evidencies of the different alternatives in terms of technological practices for the same sector. Much of the litterature try to disseminate an idea of a single (and optimum) organisational model for the same type of product. And here, even with the same type of technology, and of product (medium-high range), one can find different models, different cultures, different ways of organising the industrial structure (firms, regional institutions, R&D centres) in the same sector (auto industry).

Keywords: Automobile sector; technological practice; Information and Communication Technologies; work organisation; industrial structure; production models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L23 L62 O33 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-06, Revised 2001-06
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