Technico-Economic Paradigm, Inter-Firm Linkages and New Manufacturing Technologies: The Implications for Contract Manufacturing Relationships for Developing Countries

摘要

Contract manufacturing -- in which developing country firms contract to supply components or services to industrialized country firms -- is a common way for developing country firms to exploit the advantages of their low costs and enter otherwise difficult markets. The dynamics of contract manufacturing are changing, however, due to the growing replacement of traditional mass production assembly lines by flexible manufacturing systems which use advances in microelectronics to establish a series of semi-autonomous work-stations, each of which can make a variety of parts at low or medium volume. The paper probes the implications of flexible manufacturing systems and other changes in global manufacturing and productivity on developing country firms' competitiveness and contract manufacturing relationships with their First World clients. The ensuing sections: briefly compare the traditional mass production strategies with emerging technologies, management practices, and inter-firm relationships; develop a framework for analyzing various types of inter-firm relationships; and discuss the implications of these variants for enhancing the competitiveness of developing country contract manufacturers.