New Forms of Manufacturing and Their Spatial Implications: The UK Electronic Consumer Goods Industry

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Findings from a recent survey of the introduction of new manufacturing techniques in the UK electronic consumer goods (ECG) industry are presented. ECG firms operate in an environment characterised by intense global competition, rapidly changing consumer demand, shortened product life cycles, and the pervasive impact of new technologies. In response to these pressures firms are forced to operate in both an efficient and a highly flexible manner. The corporate responses to these pressures are outlined in an industry-wide overview, with the resultant impacts on firm performance being described in a series of case studies. In conclusion, a discussion of the possible spatial implications of the findings is presented. This includes an assessment of the ramifications at both the international and intranational or regional scales. It is shown that the application of new manufacturing techniques within this sector has led to major changes in both the spatial and the aspatial organisation of its production processes.