Brazilian Research in Auto Industry
REVIEW BRAIN INTERVIEW - PODCASTS 2020
PSA Peugeot-Citroën: Profit Strategies #1 - Raphael Lima
Many changes were underway in the auto industry before the Covid-19 pandemic, however, as in other sectors, the current global health crisis has significantly affected the market. of automobiles. In this podcast, Professor Raphael Lima (UFF), coordinator of the Study Group on Southern Development Fluminense (Gedesf) and the Brazilian Research in Auto Industry (Brain) project ), comments some of his analyzes on the current situation of the automobile industry in Brazil and, mainly, in the South Fluminense region. The interview is a sample of how the automotive sector in Brazil can be an object for sociology and other disciplines das human sciences in the reflection of questions related to the transformation of the system_cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ capitalist as a whole.
Professor Raphael Lima also problematizes that the impact of the current health crisis cannot be calculated, but the strategies of the automobile groups at the global level demonstrate some of the possible trends in the sector . One of the highlights is that the sector was undergoing a process of change in its business model, in which a concentration in the area of service provision was expanding largos, em the detriment of a decrease in actions based on the production and sale of vehicles. In this scenario, there is a cultural/generational change in the relationship between individuals e_cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_ automobiles.
However, with the current policy of distancing people and the effects of this policy on social relations, the motivation for the purchase of cars individually returns to be a possibility of expansion . The professor also points out a trend in the search for new frontiers for the production of vehicles with a smaller
production cost and how some countries act with this strategy, as is the case of China. Another important element is the advancement of Industry 4.0 and its possible impacts, that were already predicted even before the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The scenario of industry 4.0 consolidation is nothing new and this productive restructuring stores in its process a negative potential for the future of the labor market: the overwhelming destruction of employability. This is not a statement about the consequence of the expansion of industry 4.0, but a realization of its potential , just as the electrification process has a destructive potential of_cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
use of “post-car”, that is, services related to automobiles outside the factory, given that the change from combustion engines to electric motors suggests a set of specialized labor.
Finally, Professor Raphael Lima points out a self-criticism of the automobile sector about its performance in recent years: the sector's negligence with consumers. This self-criticism denotes the organization to adapt to the urgent demands that have been guided in recent months. In general, the health crisis caused by Covid-19 is seen as a “watershed” of the current transformation that the automobile industry was going through (from the provision of service as uma trend), however, it takes time to assess whether the character of this transformation will be temporary. You can access the full interview at the link below.
About the author.
Lucas do Amaral Afonso is a doctoral student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University.
About the author.
Lucas do Amaral Afonso is a doctoral student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University.
Triple Helix, E-Delivery, innovation, entrepreneurship and the automobile industry #2 - Marcelo Amaral
Research on the automotive industry reaches different perspectives and interpretations, however, the finding that the sector points to innovation processes is a consensus between these different approaches. However, innovation is not an autonomous institution that determines the direction of the automobile industry, but a movement whose management is carried out according to certain interests. In this sense, there are some theoretical models to understand, discuss and propose innovation management and one of them is the Triple Helix. To reflect on this topic, Professor Marcelo Amaral, from the Administration Department of the Universidade Federal Fluminense, was interviewed by Leonardo Ângelo da Silva, a FAPERJ fellow and member of the Brazilian Research in Auto Industry (Brain).
In the interview, at first it is possible to understand that the Triple Helix model is designed to guide the management of innovation and development, thus, according to Professor Marcelo Amaral, the model does not exist without innovation. The metaphor of a triple helix is intended to organize actors into three spheres: the university, which assumes the social role of generating technical and scientific knowledge; the goods and services sector, also considered as an industry, which refers to the productive sector of the economy, or simply companies; and the government, which assumes the role of promoting development and guaranteeing the effectiveness of contracts between the other spheres.
The fundamental proposal of Triple Helix is the organization of actors in groups, so that they can assume their roles in the development and innovation processes, however, just the junction of the three spheres mentioned above does not guarantee the existence of a Triple Helix, because the actors need to perform their respective roles. In Brazil, the use of the model would not be effective if it were not for the improvement of Triple Helix for use in contexts such as regional development. This theoretical model is often seen as limited to marketing purposes, however, Professor Marcelo Amaral argues that its use for social benefit is possible.
Brazil had a prominent period in the operation of the Triple Helix, which, according to Professor Marcelo Amaral, dates from 1930 to 1980, in this period, there was a kind of "biased Triple Helix", in which the State centralized policies oriented to the internal market. , a movement also known as import substitution industrialization. The university-company-government triad needs to be at an equivalent “level”, and the interviewee’s interpretation is that this does not happen in Brazil, because research in Brazilian universities is late, which makes interaction between university and company difficult, especially in regarding technology.
In this interview, Professor Marcelo Amaral also comments on the electric car and e-delivery, highlighting that the technological development of the electric car is related to three important aspects: innovation, materials and transformation
digital and Brazil is not in any of these three, with Triple Helix being a
possibility for the country to create ways to effectively participate in this global value chain. Finally, the interview deals with Mobility-as-a-Service, the movement of
moving from a product market (in which the service is secondary) to a market
exclusively of service and points to some reflections on the current health crisis.
To learn more, access the full interview below.
Switch to electric powertrain and the challenges for Brazil #3 - Mario Sergio Salerno
Is the electric car a real threat to the combustion engine? Is the automobile industry committed to the development of the electric car as a new mode of automobile? How will this affect people's lives? Is Brazil prepared to receive such a change? These and other questions have become increasingly among those interested in understanding the development of electric vehicles or, as the literature on the subject prefers: the powertrain electric (the term in English refers to the set of components responsible for the propulsion of a certain vehicle).
In this podcast, Professor Mario Sergio Salerno explores some of the main issues concerning the switch from a combustion engine to an electric powertrain. Result of an interview between Professor Raphael Lima (UFF) and Leonardo Ângelo da Silva _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d FAPER_(Scholarship holder), this podcast with the account of the long trajectory Professor Mario Salerno, who worked at the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Studies Socioeconômicos (DIEESE), at the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) as researcher, among other subjects, in the automobile industry and is currently Titular Professor at the Department of Production Engineering at Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo.
Imagine if, in the production of an object, an important component that is produced in the same city has to come from another country, being three times more expensive. Of course, this would make the produced object more expensive, but who defines the supplier of the item? what is at stake? We are talking about an accelerator cable and one of the stories told by Professor Salermo that help us understand some questions about production relations in the automobile industry. These questions alert us to the complexity of the social relations of production, so a change in the main product of the automobile industry triggers the reflection on the change in the production relations of the sector.
Professor Salermo points out, for example, that it is not yet known who is in front of the dispute over the dominant designer of the electric car, but some findings are possible to underline , as is the case of the vehicle as a data-producing object and drivers and passengers as consumers of the data produced and, in this sense, we are talking about the purposes and possibilities that the technological development of _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_cars can provide. Salermo also highlights the fact that the car is just a means to do other business, such as the supply of fuel, maintenance, technologies etc._cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
The consolidation of electric powertrain in Brazil, according to Professor Salermo, will have an entry through imported niches and, evidently, with high prices, mainly due to the technology used in the product. This is a dilemma for the auto parts industry, which somehow has in the combustion engine the “flagship” of its economy and with the automotive industry moving forward for the consolidation of the electric powertrain, which requires a much smaller number of parts when compared to the combustão engine, a recomposition in the productive organization of autoparts suppliers is expected .
These and other questions illustrate a scenario of change in the volume of jobs in the automobile industry, implying in the organization of work and workers. In the interview, the professor also talks about unions, professional training, and several other topics that involve the debate on the switch to electric powertrain _cc781905-5cde-3194 -bb3b-136bad5cf58d_e the challenges for Brazil. If you want to know more, check out this and other podcasts by Brazilian Research in Auto Industry (Brain) below.
About the author.
Lucas do Amaral Afonso is a doctoral student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University.
About the author.
Lucas do Amaral Afonso is a doctoral student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University.
Displacement and construction of new productive territories in the automotive sector #4 - João Dulci
Which location is best suited to set up an automobile industry in Brazil? If you were reading this message in the 1970s, this question would almost make no sense, as the most suitable place would be where there is an automotive industrial tradition, that is, ABC Paulista. The understanding of territories as socially constructed spaces points to the different influences, at different levels, in the constitution of industrial clusters. João Dulci, professor at the Department of Social Sciences and the Graduate Program in Social Sciences at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, is one of the researchers who problematize the issue of territory in the processes of economic development and vice versa, and in this podcast one of the main themes of his research: the formation of automotive clusters.
João Dulci begins by presenting his research trajectory, which integrates studies from the sociology of work and economic sociology, indicating the concept of greenfield as an important key to understanding new sociological problems for thinking about the Global Value Chain. Greenfield is how a region without an industrial tradition is characterized and, consequently, without a history of trade unions or legal institutions focused on work processes in the industry, contrary to the concept of brownfield, which allows characterizing regions with an industrial history and, therefore, with traditions unions and legal institutions in the sector, such as the ABC region of São Paulo.
João Dulci raises some questions about the conventional application of the greenfield concept, as is the case of the Ford plant installed in Camaçari-BA, which was the first automotive plant installed in a region already marked by the presence of a petrochemical complex unrelated to the automotive production. In this sense, the professor continues with the proposal to create greenfield typologies, considering some of its main variables, contributing with this literature mainly in solving the following problem: are all new automotive regions greenfields? This repertoire, in addition to contributing to studies on the automobile industry, allows us to reflect on regions such as Sul Fluminense, which did not have a tradition of automobile industry when receiving new units in the sector, but which has a long history of industrial tradition related to the Company. National Siderúrgica (CSN).
More than just building theoretical schemes to identify local development processes, Professor João Dulci's concern is to understand how the economic and political groups in the territories deal with the local-global dialectic from a Global Value Chain perspective. In the interview, the professor presents some of the main challenges in comparing three different regions that developed automotive industrial processes (Camaçari - BA, Juiz de Fora - MG, Sul Fluminense - RJ) and presents an analysis of Mercedes' performance in Juiz de Fora, both from a territorial point of view of the arrival of the company, and from a strategic point of view of production.
Finally, the interview also deals with fiscal incentive policies and comparative advantages of the regions in local development processes and presents the analysis of the political-economic situation in the scenario of the health crisis, with emphasis on the negative GDP data of more than 10% and the auto industry layoffs scheme. To learn more, visit the podcast.
Possible impacts of industry 4.0: a labor perspective #5 - Fernando Ramalho
Industry 4.0, or Fourth Industrial Revolution, is the expression used to designate the production of consumer goods from technologies such as additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and cyber-physical systems. These technologies directly impact the way consumer goods are produced and cause a major transformation in the world of work. Its repercussion is present in the entire production chain of the automobile industry, from the production of screws to the manufacture of the car. This industry is already going through a process of relocating its production chain that has shaken the world of work and that now faces the challenges posed by Industry 4.0.
Our interviewee, Professor Fernando Ramalho, will focus on this labor perspective in his studies. Fernando is a professor at Universidade Estadual Paulista and works in the following research groups: Laboratory of Studies on Work, Professions and Mobility, Group of Studies on Work and Mobility and Organizations, people and environment. In an interview conducted by Leonardo Ângelo da Silva (Scholarship holder FAPERJ), the professor presents us with some of his critical reflections on the world of work, starting with a brief description of his trajectory as a researcher, which allows us to observe how the path taken by him contributed to the richness of his analyses.
His participation in research projects on 'Mobility of Capital and Labor in the 21st century: comparative analysis of the impacts on workers in the automotive and naval sectors' and 'Labor and peripheral globalization in Brazil: A comparative study in three productive sectors' has great weight in their reflections on the impact of Industry 4.0 on the labor perspective, because they allow a comparative analysis between the automotive, naval, textile and information technology sectors. And, from the observation of work relations in the production plants of Mercedes in Iracemápolis and Fiat in Goiana, it is possible to measure how the transformations in the production chain have been affecting the worker. In addition, Fernando highlights how these workers have organized themselves to face the transformations of Industry 4.0. To learn more, access the full interview at the link below.
About the author.
Tamara Anita Alves Lima Marques is a Master's student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University
About the author.
Tamara Anita Alves Lima Marques is a Master's student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University
Re-spatialization of the automotive industry: a professor's view
researcher # 6 - Jacob Carlos Lima
The re-spatialization of the automotive industry is an important topic that aims to
motivation the strategic decisions of the companies and the clashes between the different forces
social networks, in an attempt to reach agreements that are win-win. However, what can we
observe is the global organization of capitalism exerting influence on this dynamic, resulting in a result that is not satisfactory for all involved, causing a fierce dispute between locations in the hope of attracting automotive investments beyond Brazilian regions already established by the sector. And to talk a little about this topic, we invited Professor Jacob Carlos Lima, who has been following the re-spatialization of the industry since the 1990s.
The professor has a research background focused on workers, developed
works on multiple lines. Among them, we can mention: industry and work in Brazil, flexible work and informality, sociology in Brazil, innovations in the work process, etc. This vast trajectory was influenced by its migration from the Southeast to the Northeast and back to the Southeast, presenting us with a wealth of works from different sectors, such as automotive and digital. On the re-equalization of the automotive industry, the professor talks about the case of Iracemápolis/SP and Goiana/PE to present the concepts of greenfield and brownfield.
It brings some information about the impact of information technologies on the
automotive chain and labor relations mainly because the Covid-19 pandemic was responsible for intensifying the use of these technologies in the sector, which came from an attempt to recover from the 2015 crisis. and on the “new normal” of labor relations. In addition, he also talks a little about the research on the shop floor as a fundamental piece for sociological studies of work. To learn more, access the full interview at the link below.
Global production networks, varieties of capitalism and development in the automotive hub of Sul Fluminense #7- Cristiano Monteiro
Invited by the Grupo de Estudos em Desenvolvimento do Sul Fluminense (GEDESF) to present the current situation of his research, Professor Cristiano Monteiro, PhD in Sociology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Methodology of Social Sciences and coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at Universidade Federal Fluminense, brings to the Brain Interview collection a set of relevant questions for the studies of Economic Sociology and the Automobile Industry.
Starting with his research trajectory related to the South Fluminense region, the professor illustrates in his presentation how the region can be considered a kind of laboratory of Brazilian capitalism, insofar as the sociological research objects focused on the South Fluminense dialogue with problems of research on the behavior of institutions in global production networks. With a concern to observe companies more closely and what they do to keep operating, Monteiro emphasizes the research methodology he currently uses, which is more concentrated in the literature on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC), with a focus on the dimensions national institutions and in their articulations with global production networks.
From the companies' point of view, the professor seeks a top-down approach, that is, he seeks to understand how companies organize their respective networks and production chains, and an industrial upgrading approach, which concerns the understanding of the behavior of agents that make a lot of money. of a given global production network to move from a lower position to a higher position in that network. Another important issue has to do with the movement of workers in this chain and how this movement can express important configurations of institutional behavior in the region.
Professor Cristiano Monteiro demonstrates his commitment to economic sociology by emphasizing his interest in understanding the roots and impacts that some institutions can have on the territories in which they are operating. In this sense, studying the relations of power and agency in the South Fluminense region reinforces an agenda of Brazilian sociology to understand spaces of collaboration of sociopolitical networks, both in the construction of local development strategies, and in the processes of construction of an institutional dynamics in search of low cost of production and markets for its products and services. To learn more, access the full interview below.
About the author.
Lucas do Amaral Afonso is a doctoral student in Sociology at the Postgraduate Program in Sociology at the Fluminense Federal University.