At the same time, at some point, the standard of living equalized, also through the effects of mass consumption, which meant that the population was no longer feeling the positive effects of Fordism. The idea of Fordism was to bring the product on the market at a lower price, while with the industrialization process, this was no longer necessarily a competitive advantage.

At the same time, with higher living standards, the client became much more particular in their picks off the market, which led companies in the U.S. To adapt to this new trend and introduce post-Fordism as a way to counter this and to better suit their needs.

The post-Fordism proposed specialization and customization as a reversal of the standardization that had characterized the Fordism previous. With this, post-Fordism proposed an increased focus on the client and the demand as opposed to the supply. The study of the client in terms of his or her socio-economic and psychological variables would allow for the company to produce customized products. These would necessarily have to be in smaller batches, so that the concept of customization could be better supported and that the workers could pay extra attention to customization needs.

With Fordism, large...

Post - Fordism, however, proposed a certain degree of decentralization and flexibility from the employees. As mass marketing and mass production was replaced with a specialized and targeted approach, this meant that smaller units could sometimes be built in different parts of the U.S. And that migration levels increased as people moved in search of jobs with the decentralization of the previous larger units.
At the same time, costs still needed to be kept down, which meant that in some countries, especially Japan, for example, robots were introduced as more adaptable to the specialized activity required. This also meant that in some of the cities depending on the automotive industry, people either had to professionally reconverse or diversify their area of activity.

Bibliography

1. Roediger, David, ed. "Americanism and Fordism - American Style: Kate Richards O'hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good? In Labor History 1988 29(2): 241-252.

2. Chudacoff H. & J.E. Smith. (2005) the Evolution of American Society, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

3. Koch, Max. (2006). Roads to Post-Fordism: Labour Markets and Social Structures in Europe