Paradigms of the Industrial Age

Long before the era of computers, satellite communications, and mobile communication tools, the world revolved around an era of industrialization and economic expansion of U.S. hegemony, which dictated a global standard with respect to sale of goods and services offered by capitalist enterprises.

This period includes the end of WWII until the year 1973, the world experienced advances in systematic rigging of production, the logic of capital revolving around the construction of factories, industries and mass production of products and services.

With the oil crisis in 1973, the first difficulties arise under capitalism to overcome its own idiosyncrasies. The reasons are numerous, but to date we can mention a few, fall in labor productivity, reduced government financial capacity, rising cost of raw materials, income of the working population decreased by exacerbating inflation and significant increase in the cost of energy.

So the 70's and early 80's were marked by the inability of governments to overcome the economic crisis, structural, significantly affecting the rate of production, with a marked fall in GDP annually and the income of workers in general.

This crisis is also manifested by a decrease in productivity and profitability, and the lack of a package of technological innovations that could leverage horizons most promising sectors of the economy as the most important metal mechanics, transportation, automotive, electronics.

While the world was experiencing a crisis in the capitalist mode of production, economies experience other new additions in the form of organizing work, production, income, technological innovation and management.

The result of these experiments was a substantial breakthrough in competitiveness and productivity in these countries.

The main paradigms that existed in the early 80s in the western world were management and process control, system-oriented information flow processes, raw materials, inventory, production, distribution, logistics and sales. Production models were constantly rocked by new inventions. The microelectronic element as diffusion of new production technologies, the rise of the machines electronics, robotics, changes in the appearance of plants, new kinds of workers, academic background, a new division of labor, breaking social taboos, the pill would lead to 60 woman for the job market, revolution in behavior and a strong influence on music.

The main points of the world capitalist economies are:
Industry geared primarily for the production of microelectronic
Outsourcing of production processes
Competition through quality
Organization of flexible production systems (oligopolies)
Integrating finance, supply and production


Significant changes in economic structures and industrial capital are perceived in this new form of productive organization, requiring the creation, maintenance and expansion of a competent network of partnerships, consortia and export production, cooperation in development of technologies, products and processes.

The main changes brought about by the new role of productive capital industry have resulted in some new behaviors listed below:

Dramatic increase in participation of the financial market, foreign exchange and capital.
Ability to process, transmit, store information online
Satellite telecommunications system - access real time
Intensification of global industrial oligopolies
Economy concentrated in sectors: automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, electronic consumer goods, petrochemicals, heavy electrical equipment, metals, heavy chemicals.
Thanks to telematics, a new business management
Supplies of raw materials and their processing, storage and transport logistics networks are operated in world
Reconcentration of the areas of strong R & D processes and products in private research centers.


With the considerable technological advances worldwide, especially in microelectronics, embedded in the economic and productive process, a new world order from 70 years as they face up to the model that was then implanted the Fordist model of production.

The main advancement of technology has been the rapid change in their ability to process, store, distribute and transmit information through communication networks. However, not all of these companies have enjoyed rapid adaptations, because they were tied to a rigid corporate structure, with large industrial plant, high operating costs, requiring a significant amount of assets, lack of flexibility and intensive use of productive labor labor in its operation.

Given the fascination of the changes that were happening around the world, provoking changes in the mode of production comes the need for standardization of procedures and standardization of processes. Thus arose in Europe in 1987 the ISO 9000 certification (International Organization for Standartization). This improvement action soon became popular in the market and created a pattern of production followed by the rest of the world.

This radical change in behavior in its real importance was productive when he began to also change the competitive capacity of businesses, changing their mode of management through a new socio-technical model.

Soon establish international standards of production and quality in all branches of the economy. The economy had to adapt quickly to the new regime that installed itself increasingly hegemonic.

Back in 90, the Brazilian panorama presented technologically outdated equipment and facilities, deficiencies in process technologies, delay-sensitive technologies and products, and a little or almost no application in R & D. The quality management systems were still very incipient, both products and manufacturing processes. What about implementing innovation management and organizational initiatives that showed very shy. Adoptions as Just in time, quick response total quality control, does not sensitize the Brazilian market for its high cost of deployment, because the plants installed in Brazil had little flexibility to structural changes in weight.

While companies have strong international interaction and collaboration links most of the Brazilian industry suffers from not having the interaction between user and producer, between suppliers and producers and presents an anachronistic management and labor relations, and the Brazilian view at this time still considered the work at cost and not as the primary resource of production, giving almost no attention to training projects and training of multipurpose workers.

The measures that Brazil took to enter the international market and the competitive advantages that exercised in relation to Europe and the United States were of paramount importance for a general restructuring in all sectors of the economy.

The signs are remarkable since the '90s when every open its economy to foreign investor capital. Despite a series of economic packages in the 80 and 90, the productive economy continued to grow both in volume and in quality, although at a speed that could have been much greater if the government had not caused much impact.

The various adjustments adopted in this recessionary time, with its measures of restrictive fiscal and monetary policy, wage freezes and other devices, sometimes resulting in economic instability, sometimes away foreign capital.

MANAGEMENTS antique and defensive

The paradigms that observed in the economy after the Real Plan and methods of management considered antiquated and defensive, are listed below:

Entrepreneurs do not invest enough in this period to achieve competitive profiles with international standards at both the technological and production;
Investments in modernization intended only for machines and equipment are considered insufficient to increase the competitive capacity, forget about the main organizations active in the human being.
Initiatives of some businessmen to use Japanese techniques in Brazil do not have the desired effect because the real cultural change was not systemic.
Lack of partnerships with universities and research centers to develop new technological solutions in management, logistics, training people.
Human resources have to be considered as variable costs, which the slightest drop in demand, were expendable. With it, organizations lose their main ally, the company's knowledge and creative capital.
Absence of integrated production chains with small and medium enterprises functioning as nurseries of technological innovations.
Difficulty of small and medium-sized suppliers to the segments of high technology base, because they do not have the conditions of quality and precision demanded by international markets.
The opening of the economy in Brazil has shown a 90 unprepared for innovation in products and processes, quality systems, settlement and setting long-term competitive strategy.

NEW SET OF COMPETITIVENESS REQUIRED

Modernization of facilities,
Machinery, equipment,
Business management processes and administrative
Cultural change in business habits
The paradigms of the industrial era, even to this day had to fit the new reality of a management and production. The elements considered key and key to economic growth are called contemporary intangible assets created, including: information and communication technology, intellectual capital, experience and learning, organizational competence

Enterprise customers do not choose your company because you are in prime location (close), but because your organization has competitive technology, international quality management, highly trained personnel, and especially standardized production.