Flexible Automation and Less Developed Countries: Is CIM Only a Threat to the LDCs?

Vuorinen, P. (1988). Flexible Automation and Less Developed Countries: Is CIM Only a Threat to the LDCs? IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-88-085

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Abstract

In this paper, the preconditions and effects of introducing flexible production technologies in LDCs are taken into consideration. The problems of Industrial development in LDCs, especially in NICs, is approached by studying the results from previous research work and by evaluating competing theories of technological development in LDCs.

Two contradicting hypotheses are presented. but neither of them is accepted as such. Both of them are criticized for being too simplifying and too general. The most common theoretical explanation for international industrial development, the theory of comparative advantages, is also taken under critical inspection in Chapter 3. As an overall explanation for LDC development or policy guideline it is rejected, and rather accepted as a normative tool for planning sequential development paths for industries in LDCs.

In chapter 2, a brief historical survey on the development of some industrial branches in various LDCs is presented. The effects of multinational corporations, the development of R&D activities and supply of skilled manpower are taken up as special themes. The features of LDCs are compared to each other and occasionally to some older industrial countries as well.

The picture is enriched with an excursion to recent developments in manufacturing technologies in Chapter 4. The problems of producing and applying flexible automation technologies in LDCs are summarized and formulated into a research approach in Chapter 5. The adopted approach is of a more concrete, more historically and institutionally oriented nature than the most commonly used research methods.

In Chapter 6, some countries are considered as possible targets for a more concrete study on flexible automation and LDCs. In the final chapter, the research approach is developed further and summarized into a sketch for an empiric study starting as a comparative survey between three pairs of countries.

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