Evolution of the Automobile Industry

This Element applies capability-architecture-performance (CAP) approach of industrial analysis to the evolution of the automobile industry and the strategies of its leading manufacturing firms between the late 19th century and the early 21st century. It regards a manufacturing site ('genba ' such as factory development facility etc.) and a product (and other economic artifacts such as processes) as the two basic units of analysis. Both an industry and a firm can be seen as a collection of sites as well as a collection of products. The CAP framework predicts that dynamic fits between the sites' organizational capabilities and the product/process architectures lead to sustainable competitive performance. Such key concepts as flows of value-carrying design information productive/market/profit performance design-based comparative advantage integral/modular architectures multi-skilling coordinative capability-building evolutionary capabilities industry lifecycle and architectural evolution are discussed in a systematic and dynamic way.