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FLEXIBILITY & LOCATION

Selected Literature

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/readings/flexibility.html)


Supporting Pages:


Internet Sites: (Flexible Working Schedules)

Clippings:

Even flextime sometimes won't bend Seattle Times, April 20, 2003; by: Carol Kleiman

The option of flexible hours is a popular one for time-strapped employees. It helps you control your life, it costs the employer nothing, and the work still gets done. But even this benefit has a major drawback.
"Flexible hours are a great concept and a lifesaver, but they also create longer days and do not reduce the total number of hours worked -- so you still are stressed out even though you are doing things on your own schedule....

Big Steel might lack flexibility to survive Seattle Times, August 18, 2002 By Jennifer Scott Cimperman, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Want flextime? Boss may bend to your wishes Seatlle Times, Sunday, July 21, 2002 by Carol Kleiman / Syndicated columnist

Flexible scheduling is the benefit of choice in the United States, but employees still have difficulty asking for it and employers granting it."

Production Plants in Mobile Containers [http://www.scinet-corp.com/associates/ist.htm] [2002]

Mini-plants in mobile containers, made especially to be supplied to developing countries. The mini-plant system is designed in such a way that all the production machinery is fixed on the platform of the container, with all wiring, piping, and installation parts; that is to say, they are fully equipped.

Building flexible schools for the 21st century Seattle Times, Thursday, February 22, 2001 Guest columnist By David Marshak

We need to design and build secondary schools that are flexible, that can be used in multiple configurations. ... Rather than a building that can only be used for a single, 1,600-student school, let's build a school that can be readily configured in several ways: as one school; as two schools, each with 800 students; as four schools, each with 400 students; or perhaps even as eight schools, each with 200 students.

Smart companies help workers flex their time Seattle Times, Sunday, February 11, 2001; Carol Kleiman / Syndicated columnist

Since flexibility was offered as part of a package at Deloitte & Touche to retain female employees, the difference in turnover between women and men at the firm now is two percentage points, compared with 10 points eight years ago.

Job Market Flextime for line workers likely to rise, CEO says , Seattle Times, October 10, 1999 by Carol Kleiman [An increasing number of U.S. workers have the choice of flexible hours and work days.]

Literature:

Alcorta, Ludovico. Flexible Automation in Developing Countries : The Impact on Scale and Scope and the Implications for Location of Production (Unu/Intech Studies in new..., Hardcover (August 1998) Routledge; ISBN: 041519153X

Bagnasco, A., Tre Italie: La Problematicadello Svillupo. Bologna: Il Mulina, 1977.

Berger S., and M. Piore, Dualism and Discontinuity in Industrial Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Bolwijn, P.T. Flexible Manufacturing: Integrating Technological and Social Innovation. 1986 [TS 155.6 F547 1986/Eng]

Browne, J., et al., ""Classification of Flexible Manufacturing Systems," The FMS Magazine, April 1984, pp.114-7. ["have classified FMS according to type of flexibilities (8 types?)..."]

Dore, Ronald. Flexible Rigidities: Industrial Policy and Structural Adjustment in the Japanese Economy 1970-80. Stanford Univ.Press 1986. [HC462.9.D65 1986B]

Drake, Glenn R., Jeffrey S. Smith, and Brett A. Peters SIMULATION AS A PLANNING AND SCHEDULING TOOL FOR FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS (Online, n.d.)

EBEL, KARL-H, "Social and Labour Implications of Flexible Manufacturing Systems," International Labour Review 124(2), 1985, 133-45.

Fleming,D.K., "A Concept of Flexibility," GeoJournal 2, 1978, pp.111-16.

Gertler, M.S., "The Limits to Flexibility: Comments on the Post-Fordist Vision of Production and its Geography," Trans.Inst.Br.Geogr. N.S. 13, 1988, 419-432.

Gertler, M.S., "Resurrecting Flexibility? A Reply to Schoenberger," Trans.Inst.Br.Geogr. 14, 1989, 109-12.

Gertler, M.S., "Flexibility Revisited: Districts, Nation-States, and the Forces of Production," Trans.Inst.Br.Geogr.N.S. 17, 1992, 259-78.

Goldberg, Michael. On Systematic Balance: Flexibility and Stability in Social. Economic, and Environmental Systems. Praeger, N.Y., 1989. [HC79 E5 G63, ArchLib]

Golembiewski, Robert T., "Flexi Time and Employee Control over Work," (pp.419ff) in: Golembiewski, Robert T., ed., http://www.dekker.com/servlet/product/productid/0321-9"> Handbook of Organizational Consultation, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. Series Volume: 81 (2000) [HD69 C6 H363 2000/Suzz] [Part of the Public Administration and Public Policy series]

GUSTAVSEN, BJORN, "Evolving Patterns of Enterprise Organization: The Move Towards Greater Flexibility," International Labour Review 125(4), 1986, 367ff.

Harrigan, Kathryn Rudie. Strategic Flexibility. Lexington Books, 1985. (e.g. exit flexibility, p.120) [HD58.8 H367/BA]

Harrison, Bennett. Lean and mean : the changing landscape of corporate power in the age of flexibility. New York : Basic Books, 1994. [HD69.S5 H367 1994] Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-309) and index. [Industries-Size-of. Industrial-concentration. Corporate-reorganizations.]

Heß, Martin. (München) INTERNATIONALISIERUNG, FLEXIBLE PRODUKTION UND STANDORTENTWICKLUNG - ZUR DISKUSSION DER ANGELSäCHSISCHEN INDUSTRIEGEOGRAPHIE. Dezember 1994

"Thinking about economic spaces has always been divided between two momenta of a dialectic: locality and globality; or regional personality versus interregional (international) division of labour. (...) Both are single-mindedly focusing either on locality or on globality, and both involve a particular vision of present evolutions within the world capitalist system ('peripheral Fordism' of 'flexible accumulation')."

Jones, Robert A. and Joseph M. Ostroy, "Flexibility and Uncertainty," Review of Economic Studies 51, 1984, pp.13-32.

Krumme's flexibility papers

Kusiak, Andrew, ed., Flexible Manufacturing Systems: Methods and Studies. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1986. [TS155.6 F55 1986/BA]

Kusiak, Andrew. Modelling and Design of Flexible Manufacturing Systems. Amsterdam; North Holland, 1986. [TS 155.6 M63 1986/Eng.]

Lee, R.M., ed., Redundancy, Layoffs and Plant Closure; Their Character, Causes and Consequences, Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm, 1987. [paper by Harris includes ref. to "flexible firm"] [reviewed in E&P 19(1), Nov.1987]

Malecki, E.J. Technology and Economic Development, 2nd ed., 1997, pp.129-50.

Martinelli, F. and E. Schoenberger, "Oligopoly is alive and well: Notes for a broader discussion of flexible accumulation," in: Benko, G. and M. Dunford, eds., Industrial Change and Regional Development: The Transformation of New Industrial Spaces. Belhaven/Pinter, London 1991. [HC79.D5.I5/1991]

Matthews, Richard A. Fordism, Flexibility, and Regional Productivity Growth. Studies on Industrial Productivity. New York and London: Garland, 1996. Pp. xvii, 259. ISBN 0-8153-2736-6. [Summary JEL, Dec. 1997, pp.2117/8]

Examines the effects of recent changes in the organization of production on productivity growth in American manufacturing sectors. Investigates whether new forms of industrial organization, such as production by flexible specialization, have become more geographically and sectorally widespread than their Fordist predecessors.... A 1995 Ph.D. Dissertation at Arizona State University. Index.

deMeza, David and Frederick van der Ploeg, "Production Flexibility as a Motive for Multinationality," Journ. of Ind. Econ. 35(3), March 1987, 343-51.

Pindyck, Robert S., "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment," Journ. of Econ.Lit. 29(3), Sept.1991, 1110-48.

Piore, Michael J. and Charles F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. N.Y.: Basic BOOKS, 1984.

Piore, Michael J., "Perspectives on Labor Market Flexibility," Industrial Relations 25(2), Spring 1986, pp.l46-66.

Rees K, Hayter R., Flexible specialization, uncertainty, and the firm: Enterprise strategies in the wood remanufacturing industry of the Vancouver metropolitan area, British Columbia, CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER-GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN 40: (3) 203-219 FALL 1996.

We articulate the relationships between strategies of flexible specialization, uncertainty, and the firm in order to emphasize the internal differentiation of flexibly specialized regions. Conceptually, the paper argues that this variability is an implication of uncertainty... in response to uncertainty, firms develop different types of flexibility with respect to production, technology, and employment in sometimes novel ways...

Schoenberger, E., "Thinking about Flexibility: A Response to Gertler," Trans.Inst.Br.Geogr. N.S.14, 1989, 98-108.

Seldon, James R. (The University College of the Cariboo) A Death Much Exaggerated: On the Demise of the Long Run Journal of Economic Education Volume 25, No. 2 (Spring 1994), pp. 172-178

Stauding, Guy. "Meshing Labour Flexibility with Security: An Answer to British Unemployment," International Labour Review 125(1), 1986, 87ff.

Stigler, George, "Production and Distribution in the Short Run," Journ. of Political Economy. 47, 1939, 305-27.

Scitovsky, T."Can Capitalism Survive--An Old Question in a New Setting?" American Economic Review, 1980.

(in Richard T. Ely Lecture) The American Economic Review, Vol. 70, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Ninety-Second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, Atlanta, Georgia, December 28-30, 1979. (May, 1980), pp. 1-9.

Scott, A.J. "Flexible Production Systems and Regional Development: The Rise of New Industrial Spaces in North America and Western Europe," Int.J.Urb.Rey.Res. 1988

Shaiken, H., S.Herzenberg and S.Kuhn, "The Work Process under More Flexible Production," Industrial Relations, 25(2), Spring 1986, pp.l67-83.

Sommer, Paul (NW Policy Center, University of Washington), Flexible Manufacturing Networks: What, Who, Why, and How [July 1996]

"This is a hypertext document from which you can learn about flexible manufacturing networks."

Storper, Michael and Susan Christopherson, Flexible Specialization and Regional Industrial Agglomerations: The Case of the U.S. Motion Picture Industry, Annals (AAG) 77(1), 1987, 104-17.

Thomas, David et al., Flexibility and Commitment in Planning: A Comparative Study of Local Planning and Development in the Netherlands and England. The Hague: M.Nijhoff, 1983. [HT169N4F55 1983/copy2/ Geog.]

Tolloday, Steven & Jonathan Zeitlin, Automobile Industry & its Workers: Between Fordism & Flexibility.(Polity/Blackwell, Cambridge),1986.[HD9710.A2 A865]

United Nations: Commission for Europe: Recent Trends in Flexible Manufacturing. N.Y.: UN 1986. [HD6331.R39 1986/Eng.]

Weinstein, Oliver. "High technology and Flexibility, Ch.2 in: Cooke, Philip et al., in: Towards Global Localization, 1992 [HF1414.T68/1992/Suz] pp.19ff.["The Economy of Flexible Systems, Some Questions," pp.22ff]

Weizsaecker, Carl Christian von, The Temporal Structure of the Production Process and the Problem of the Distribution of Income between Capital and Labor, The German Economic Review 10(4), 1972, 27ff.

Young, Clifford and Alice Greene. Flexible Manufacturing Systems. American Management Association. [TS 155.6 Y68 1986/BA]

Scale and/or Scope Economies

Definition: "Economies of scope exist when a single firm producing various products jointly can produce them more cheaply than if each product is produced by a separate firm." [Edwin Mansfield, Applied Microeconomics, 2nd ed., 1997, p.259]

Dunn, Daniel L. et al., "Economies of Scope in Physicians' Work: The Performance of Multiple Surgery," Inquiry 32 (Spring 1995), 87-101.

Gold, Bela, "Changing Perspectives of Size, Scale and Returns: An Interpretive Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, 19(1), 1981, 5-33.

Panzar J.C. and R.D. Willig, "Economies of Scope," American Economic Review 71(2), 1981.

Talaysum, A.T., M.Z.Hassan and J.D.Goldhar, "Scale versus Scope Considerations in the CIM/FMS Factory," in: Flexible Manufacturing Systems: Methods and Studies, A.Kusiak (Ed.), 1986, pp.45-56.

Special Issue:

Growth and Change vol.25(2), Spring 1994 "Flexible Manufacturing" (Daniel Knudsen, editor) [incl. Glasmeier on HongKong watch industry]

Locational Adaptation and Evolutionary Location Theory

Winter, Sidney. "On Coase, Competence and the Corporation," in: Williamson and Winter, eds., The Nature of the Firm. 1993, pp.l79ff.

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