According to some, the economic crisis of the mid 1970s marked the transition from the traditional Fordist mode of industrial organization to one of Time-Based-Competition (Schoenberger, 1997; Stalk, 1988; Stalk and Hout, 1990). As an industrial paradigm, the 'old', ideal-type, Fordism was a system of 'assembly-line-based mass production' of standardized goods (Asheim, 1992). Production took place in large vertically integrated plants owned and centrally controlled by large, often multinational, corporations. Rising productivity was based on mechanization, the pursuit of internal economies of scale, a detailed division of tasks and work intensification (Amin, 1994). Long production runs and dedicated machinery were intended to minimize downtime. Driven by similar considerations, suppliers produced and delivered standardized components in large, infrequent, batches. Price competitiveness was the single most important criterion in supplier-selection (Sayer, 1986). Finally, as regards the geography of production, the narrow focus on price, production costs and labor cost minimization meant that the Fordist system was often characterized by an extreme spatial division of labor and spaced-out supply chains. Peripheral regions were incorporated in a dependent way through branch-plant investment that contributed little to regional development.