ABSTRACT
As is well-known, at the beginning of the 1970s a serious crisis of the fordist model occurred. Several conditions influenced this outcome: the saturation of final markets and their increasing instability and segmentation, together with other conjunctural factors, such as the end of the Bretton Woods system, and the oil crisis of 1973-74. They created strong rigidities, which proved to be an obstacle to competitive strategies based on containment of costs. In addition, the diffusion of flexible, low-cost technology, along with other factors, undermined the foundation of a model characterized by limited flexibility and high volumes of production. Following these changes, intensive restructuring of large-scale enterprises began and new opportunities emerged for the development of competitive models other than fordism, capable of combining considerable flexibility with diversification of products and with a different price-quality relationship.
