 Origins of mass production: summary. Chapter 10 in Sustainable Consumption, Production and Supply Chain Management, 2021, pp 60-61 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Most accept the notion that Ford was the first to mass produce cars. However, the car he mass produced was an ‘Edwardian’ car, based on a modular approach to car making. Ford took the car as it was understood in his day, added some incremental improvements and adapted it to be mass produced. Modern mass produced cars are not made like this. They use all-steel ‘monocoque’, or ‘unibody’ construction. This technology was made possible by Budd and Ledwinka’s invention, of the all-steel welded body. While Fordism was possible without Budd, Toyotism refined Fordism within Budd technology by enhancing its responsiveness to market demand: the ‘pull-through’ concept. Like Ford’s mass production of mechanical components - notably engines - Budd’s steel body technology requires very high initial investments, but once made, these allow low unit costs at high production volumes. Budd’s innovations constitute the basis for the economics of car making, notably its economies of scale. Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Environment; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:19811_10 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.