Japanese Production Management: Problematic in Application, both in Japan and the West

What is it about?

This article tells what (probably) you didn’t know . . . about kaizens; what killed/kills the silo system; why you won’t learn much from a visit to a auto assembly plant (Toyota’s or others’); what caused reengineering, full of promise and common sense, fell on its own sword; how the locus of innovations in production management shifted from the Far East to the West; how and why DFMA must be seen as a core methodology of JIT/lean manufacturing; that a retailer, Wal-Mart, has forced its manufacturer-suppliers to become customer-focused and pull-system participants, and given them key methodologies to do so; and that Japan has ranked last among global regions in objective measures of inventory. Those and many other, related, topics are taken up in this wide and deep study of the roots and shifting efficacy of Japanese production management. For each topic, the related history and dynamic changes taking place in the U.S. and the West are contrasted with those in Japanese industry. At the same time, the article shows how best concepts and methodologies have bounced back and forth—and sometimes failed to bounce at all—between Japanese manufacturers their western counterparts and competitors.

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Why is it important?

This is, in part, a comprehensive historical treatment of the many and evolving aspects of "best practices" in manufacturing. Most of those who have been involved--even among prominent researchers, authors, and consultants--know only part of the story. With a greater understanding of what has worked and endured vs. what has not, in both Japanese and western industry, it is more likely that mistakes will be fewer and successes more stable and forward-reaching.

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