Oligopolio y competencia mundial en la industria automotriz. La emergencia del Toyotismo y la caída del Fordismo

This paper pretends to analyze the competitive strategies developed during a process of transformation, in the clash of two paradigms, the Fordism agains the Toyotism, which took place in the late 70's into one of most representative industries of capitalism: the automotive industry, home of the two economic paradigms in question. One of the features that this industry has is to be concentrated, because there are few companies on the cusp of a hierarchical organization that compete between them. So, we can see that the competition is not only between individual companies but between a supply chain including a group of companies of various sizes, faced with another chain with similar characteristics. This involvement of many actors live with a concentration of activities that generate greater added value, associated to this, a different ability to participate in the profits of each of the members of the chain. In addition to competition with the features mentioned, there are processes of cooperation between leading companies, (those who are at the top of the chain and those leading the process, deciding who gets in and who goes, and what is the role of each one of those which form part of the chain) in order to achieve goals that involved competing companies allow it to continue with its expansion strategies. Despite this, it is remarkable that the aim of companies is the same: to grow. Thus, the chain leaders seeking a better strategy to achieve this aim, and this can be seen clearly right in confronting u.s. firms, strong representatives of Fordism, with the Japanese firms, who carried the flag of the new form production that would permeate the global economy: the Toyotism. Thus, this paper presents some important concepts that allow us to better understand the process of productive transformation mentioned, and then analyze the specific case of the automotive industry, with particular emphasis on the u.s. and Japanese automakers as chain leaders.