Refine the Cornerstone (The Historical Trend of Global Manufacturing Transformation)

Author: Li Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The development of manufacturing is a significant issue in the progress of human society. Historically, manufacturing has laid the foundation for the global economy since the Industrial Revolution. In reality, manufacturing is a crucial component of a country's comprehensive competitiveness. However, with the changes in socio-technical economic conditions and the growth and evolution of manufacturing itself, our understanding of its development patterns remains far from complete. For example, under today's economic informatization and globalization, the prospects of manufacturing development in relation to the economic growth of various countries are a highly concerned issue. Especially, the debates about the "new economy" in the 1990s, along with the clear differences in the development of the new economy between the United States and Japan, have made the study of manufacturing issues a popular topic once again. In sectors closely linked to foreign trade, manufacturing and the growth of imports and exports have always been a focus of statistical analysis. The informatization of manufacturing in relation to the industrial application of new technologies has also enabled research at the technical level of manufacturing. Linked to the rise and fall of a country's competitiveness, from the second half of the 1980s, the United States, Japan, and even Europe successively completed their investigations and analyses on the adjustment and revitalization of manufacturing.
The book Reforge the Cornerstone systematically reveals the panoramic view of the development and changes of manufacturing throughout history. At the same time, it employs comparative research to highlight the different focuses of manufacturing transformation in different types of countries during the transition from industrial to knowledge-based economies, clearly presenting both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of manufacturing development. The analysis of manufacturing and other industrial issues in the book is conducted within the broad historical context of global economic development. For instance, the study of the transformation of the U.S. manufacturing system and the analysis of the historical legacy of Japan's industrial economy. In these studies, the analysis of each country's economic development is taken to the industrial level, attempting to integrate the study of industrial economics with that of national and global economics. This is precisely the unique perspective of the book on the study of manufacturing issues.