Industrial Spatial Organization through the Evolution of Production Systems: Fordism, Toyotism, Wintelism, and Distributed Manufacturing
Author:XU Wenbo, WANG Xingping, ZHAO Shengbo, WANG YizheAbstract: This study combines theoretical and case analysis to examine the spatial logic of Fordist, Toyotist, Wintelist, and distributed production systems and to anticipate how distributed manufacturing may transform industrial space in the digital-intelligent era. Production systems evolve from centralization through polycentric organization toward decentralization. Digital technology reorganizes information flows and supply chains, contributing to partial dissolution of cluster- and chain-based formations and to production networks operating across larger regions. At micro scale, industrial space becomes smaller and more modular, with agglomerated manufacturing-service units and dispersed automated manufacturing units. Planning should reconsider conventional industry-city integration and provide flexible spaces that support rainforest-like industrial ecologies and rapid response.
Abstract: This study combines theoretical and case analysis to examine the spatial logic of Fordist, Toyotist, Wintelist, and distributed production systems and to anticipate how distributed manufacturing may transform industrial space in the digital-intelligent era. Production systems evolve from centralization through polycentric organization toward decentralization. Digital technology reorganizes information flows and supply chains, contributing to partial dissolution of cluster- and chain-based formations and to production networks operating across larger regions. At micro scale, industrial space becomes smaller and more modular, with agglomerated manufacturing-service units and dispersed automated manufacturing units. Planning should reconsider conventional industry-city integration and provide flexible spaces that support rainforest-like industrial ecologies and rapid response.