Organizational learning in automotive manufacturing: a strategic choice

This manuscript surveys the changes that affected the automotive industry in recent years with the evolution of industrial focus on globalization forces. Further, it proposes organizational learning as a viable strategy for the automotive industry, to effectively embrace and be agile to the continually changing environment. First, the manuscript characterizes and surveys the impact of globalization (global markets and competitors) on the current automotive industry in three categories: challenges in new markets, challenges in mature markets, and challenges in customer demands and hence sales trends. Second, the traditional strategies implemented in the automobile industry such as the “Company” and “Plant” specific production systems are presented. Lastly, the manuscript supports its proposal through case examples from Original Equipment Manufacturers the Rover group and Volvo AB.