Assembling Toyota in Portugal

A lot has been written over the last decade with regard to Toyota and the productive model associated to it (toyota-ism). And more specifically concerning the "(…) best-seller that changed the... sociological world" (Castillo, 1998: 31). But the case of Salvador Caetano’s Ovar Industrial Division (OID), that assembles Toyota light commercial vehicles in Portugal, allows us to put forward a sub-hypothesis that fits into the analysis schema proposed in the First GERPISA International Program – "In short, GERPISA members considered that the plurality of models was much a plausible hypothesis deserving testing as that of the diffusion of a unique model (…)" (Boyer, Freyssenet, 2001: 42). So we add: and within Toyota itself, is it not true that different productive models co-exist – especially when delocalised – depending, amongst other factors, on the degree of Toyota participation – in terms of capital and technology transfer – in the local company (strong or weak) and on the markets to be reached (internal or external)? If so, what work system can we expect to find in a plant that presents such peculiar characteristics as this one?