イギリス自動車産業の大量生産システム形成--1920年代のモリス・モータース社を中心に
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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of the mass production system at Morris Engines Co. and the former Coventry works of Hotchkiss et Cie.<BR>Hotchkiss et Cie began to produce 50 engine units per week at their Coventry works in 1918. Machine shops were originally general engineering shops, where similar types of machine tools were grouped together. In 1922, Hotchkiss converted these into a hybrid of “machine-tool-based shop” and “components-based shop” for the production of 100 units per week.<BR>Morris Engines took over the works from Hotchkiss in 1923, and in 1924 an output of 1, 200 engines per week was achieved. The engineer Woollard implemented a method of continuous flow production at this factory. It was in the context of a flow principle that experiments were made in the development of transfer machines to produce a cylinder block and other components. Power-driven conveyor systems were, however, not used in the assembly lines. Then the factory needed stimulus by piecework to speed up the production pace or to increase the output. Woollard did not call this system “mass production” but called it “continuous production.” These processes were not aimed at attacking enormous quantities but were endeavor to secure continuous flow and were suitable for the scale of the British market.<BR>The whole process of these developments were also the outcome of an inherent need to secure continuous flow rather than an adaptation of Fordism as Tolliday asserted.