AutoEuropa: a post-Ford production model

Abstract

This article aims to give a global presentation of a production project in the automobile sector, which is of extreme importance in our economy. The most modern technology, methods of production, organisation and management of human resources similar to the hugely efficient system used in Japan by the Toyota/Ohn model has been installed in Portugal. A view of organisational structure and a detailed perspective of labour relations adopted by the company will be given. This problem, analysed by someone who knows the company from the inside, will conclude by contrasting the manifest inflexibility of labour management with the model of total flexibility demanded for production.