Industry 4.0 and Its Implications for the International Division of Labor in the Automotive Industry
摘要
The introduction of Industry 4.0 concepts has been among the key developments in the automotive industry in the last decade. Building upon previous organizational changes, these concepts aim to increase the productivity and flexibility of manufacturing operations. In the policy discourse, Industry 4.0 has sometimes been seen as an opportunity for high-wage manufacturing locations to develop new competitive advantages over low-wage countries and stop or potentially reverse relocation processes. Building on these debates, this chapter focuses on three central questions: (1) What differences and similarities can we observe between the major automobile-producing countries in the implementation of Industry 4.0 production systems? (2) What specific changes in process organization in the automotive industry have resulted from the adoption of Industry 4.0 concepts? (3) How has the adoption of Industry 4.0 concepts affected the international division of labor in the automotive sector? Overall, the analysis indicates that the arrival of Industry 4.0 production concepts has not yet radically reshaped the strategies of companies in major car-producing countries, nor has it significantly shifted the existing divisions of labor between high- and low-wage economies in the automotive sector. Meanwhile, new types of productivity and efficiency challenges are emerging in the automotive sector related to new product and production technologies, and their impacts remain uncertain.