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Assembly Industries in Mexico: Contexts of Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

C. Daniel Dillman*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb

Extract

Beginning in the early 1960s, manufacturing operations of the larger U.S. corporations became more international in scope with the emergence of the globally integrated production system (Moxon, 1974: 60). Fundamental to the successful functioning of the system was an international division of labor. Generally, workers in less developed countries (LDCs) were utilized for labor-intensive tasks, and capital-intensive, highly skilled phases of production were carried out in the United States. The geographical separation of labor inputs became the hallmark of the internationalization of production directed by multinational corporations (MNCs). More efficient modes of transportation, such as containerization and air freight, and improved communication, information, and production control techniques made possible centralized administration of dispersed production units (Vuskovic, 1980: 10). In addition, the global context of production required a new approach to foreign investment—the offshore installation, which eventually assumed two forms: the export platform and the satellite plant.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1983

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