Skills, Shop-Floor Participation and the Transformation of Brimfield Precision: Lessons for the Revitalization of the Metal-Working Sector

Robert Forrant and Erin Flynn

Industrial and Corporate Change, 1999, vol. 8, issue 1, 167-88

Abstract: There is a need for an accumulation of in-depth case studies on successful industrial restructuring in a variety of national and regional contexts and across several industries to extend our understanding of how enterprises successfully develop their dynamic capabilities. While there are studies and reports documenting the recent failures of the US machine tool and metal-working industry, there are few considerations of successful turn-arounds. This article is one such case study and it is part of an ongoing and highly detailed analysis of the extensive metal-working industry in western Massachusetts. Here we analyze the transformation of Brimfield Precision, Inc. from a typical machine shop dependent on a handful of customers and price-based contracts, to one that thrives on the design and manufacture of a range of surgical instruments. The reorganization is placed in the context of the more general decline of the US machine tool and metal-working industry after World War II to offer a working model for how the industry may 'remake itself'. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indcch:v:8:y:1999:i:1:p:167-88

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial and Corporate Change is currently edited by Josef Chytry

More articles in Industrial and Corporate Change from Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().