Spanish Industrial Activity: Organizational Changes & Trends
Major Organizational Changes in Spanish Industry (1978-2008)
What are the major organizational changes and location shifts in Spanish industrial activity since the Third Technological Revolution (Industrial Revolution)? This analysis notes explanatory factors and trends.
Between 1978 and 2008, Spanish industrial production grew by 64% due to intense renewal of production processes and increasing workforce reduction. This has affected increased industry productivity. Today, industry contributes about 27% of GDP, although there are significant regional contrasts. The active population represents 30%. The industry today, more computerized and automated, requires an increasingly skilled workforce, more specialized in tasks related to the services sector (research, design, management, distribution, advertising, marketing, customer service), to the point that we speak of a process of outsourcing in the industry.
The changes of the Third Industrial Revolution were built on innovation and the application of advances in scientific and technological revolutions to the development of new products, production processes (methods of production and distribution), organization (methods of labor and management), and marketing. The scientific revolution provides the knowledge, and the technological revolution, starring microelectronics (chip manufacture), has enabled changes in production, structure, and industrial location.
Changes in Industrial Production
The technological revolution promoted new industrial sectors, called high-tech: telematics (IT and telecommunications), robotics, precision instruments, new materials (polymers, alloys), modern transportation (aerospace, high speed), biotechnology (genetic engineering), laser, and renewable energy. New technologies can also be applied to traditional industries.
Changes in Industrial Structure
Changes in the production system promote new technologies of decentralization and flexible production.
- Decentralization: Dividing the production process into phases and tracing each one in separate facilities, and replacement of large works by others of smaller size.
- Flexibility of Production: Manufacturing small series of different products at profitable prices, made possible by the use of automated machinery and easily reprogrammable.
Change in Company Size
The system changes in production support the growth of SMEs and a reduction in the average size of factories.
Change in Industrial Employment
These changes are summarized in skills, outsourcing, and deregulation. The industry today, more computerized and automated, requires an increasingly skilled workforce, more specialized in tasks related to the services sector (research, design, management, distribution, advertising, marketing, customer support), to the extent that we speak of a process of outsourcing in the industry.
The labor market is deregulated. The demand for flexibility reduces the number of workers with some stability and increases the number of unregulated workers and increasingly precarious employment (temporary contracts, self-employment, piece work at home…).
Changes in Industrial Location
New technologies, on the one hand, have permitted the disclosure or relocation of companies seeking to reduce costs to places that offer higher advantages. Moreover, they stimulate concentration of high-tech industries, offices, and services in so-called core areas, which bring together the best equipment and services.