The Japanese Production System in a Changing Environment: Changes in Japanese and American Hybrid Factories in Northern Mexico

The issue of hybridization has once again gained importance in Mexico. The Japanese Production System (JPS), more commonly known in this country as flexible production or lean production, is currently under academic debate. While one approach has viewed the JPS in its more general concept, i.e. as local-capacity building and the creation of different evolutive paths (Alonso et al., 1994, 2000; Buitelar et al., 1999; Lara et al., 2003; Dutrenit and Veracruz, 2004), another continues viewing it as unchanging structures, which intensify labor and impoverish employment. This second approach asks itself whether the maquiladora (as the best example of the industrialization model for exports in Mexico) remains a Taylorist/Fordist industry and the introduction of the JPS is merely an example of the precarious reach ‘Toyotism’ has in Mexico (Wilson, 1992; Martinelli and Schoenberger, 1994; De la Garza, 2004). In other words, the discussion goes beyond the understanding of JPS in and of itself, combining the analysis of productive models with those of growth and industrialization.