High Road Strategy in the Era of Eco-friendly Car Paradigm - Making of Korean Production System Version 4.0

R&D enables car manufacturers to remain innovative and competitive. For example, producing eco-friendly cars in light of environmental concerns. Professor Hyung Je Jo, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ulsan University, South Korea, has studied the development process of the Korean automobile industry for more than 30 years and is conducting research to help this industry transition to the ‘green car’ paradigm and overcome interrelated challenges. A current research focus for Jo and the team is how internal combustion and electric vehicle production systems are impacted when this is transferred to a different country. The researchers have performed a case study looking at Hyundai’s motor plant in Alabama, US for which Jo visited the plant for a week in July 2009, during which time he conducted interviews and performed participant observation and then published a paper. He revisited the plant in July 2012 for a complementary study. The team also compared German and Korean automotive manufacturers in Central-Eastern Europe, discovering that the disparate strategies and labour-management relations of the mother company have different effects on the product development and human resource management methods of local factories in Slovakia. Now, the researchers are working on a ‘high road strategy’ in the era of the eco-friendly car paradigm.