ABSTRACT
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Midwest manufacturing appeared to be headed for near total collapse, and the region had the steepest decline in real income during the 1982 recession. However, by the early 1990s the Midwest was boasting rates of growth in productivity rivalling that of Japan, and rates of income and job growth outpacing the coastal regions of the USA. Moreover, a region that was once decimated by international competition had become the export belt of the USA. Although new technologies have played an important role in this transformation, the region’s economic resurgence is the result of its ability to adapt to a more fundamental shift in the nature of production. New ways of organizing work, new relationships with suppliers and customers, and a focus on continuous improvement are the key elements of this new high-performance production system.
