Toyota distributed the production of ancillary machine parts to smaller companies around the periphery of its main factory unit to ensure just in time production of cars at a lower cost. This is an example of:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Post-fordism
Option (1) Post-fordism — Correct. Post-Fordism is a system of flexible production at dispersed locations. The main company does not make every part under one roof; it gives parts out to smaller suppliers placed round the factory, who send them just when they are needed (just-in-time). This keeps the company’s costs low. Toyota spreading the making of ancillary parts among smaller companies round its main unit is this very system.
Option (2) Fordism — Incorrect. Fordism is mass production of goods at a centralised location: the whole car is made in one large factory. The case describes the opposite, production spread out among many small units.
Option (3) Liberalisation — Incorrect. Liberalisation is a set of government policies that open the economy to the world market, for example by removing licences and letting foreign firms invest. The case is about how one company organises its production, not about a state policy.
Option (4) Disinvestment — Incorrect. Disinvestment is the government selling its share in public sector companies. Toyota is a private company sharing out work among suppliers; nothing is being sold by the state.
NCERT (2025-26): “5.4 How is work carried out? … The firm has outsourced all services like cleaning, and security, as well as the manufacture of parts. The parts suppliers are located around the factory and send the parts every two hours or just-in-time. Outsourcing and just-in-time keeps costs low for the company, but the workers are very tense, because if the supplies fail to arrive, their production targets get delayed, and when they do arrive they have to run to keep up.… Social Change and Development in India — Chapter 6, Globalisation and a New International Division of Labour: … Instead of mass production of goods at a centralised location (Fordism), we have moved to a system of flexible production at dispersed locations (post-Fordism).…” |