Flexible Specialization

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= skilled workers used sophisticated general-purpose machinery to turn out a wide and constantly changing assortment of goods for large but constantly shifting markets


Description

From Michael Piore's book, The Second Industrial Divide:


"Our claim is that the present deterioration in economic performance results from the limits of the model of industrial development that is founded on mass production: the use of special-purpose (product-specific) machines and of semiskilled workers to produce standardized goods."

The alternative approach, according to the same book, is flexible specialization, where “skilled workers used sophisticated general-purpose machinery to turn out a wide and constantly changing assortment of goods for large but constantly shifting markets.”


Key Book to Read

  1. Michael Piore. The Second Industrial Divide