The Japanese Production System and Its International Transferability

Authors

  • Hiroshi Kumon Department of Sociology Hosei University, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32890/mmj1997.2.2.5

Keywords:

Japanese production system, shop-floor-centred work organization, waste-free production control, participative management, application and adaptation, hybridization

Abstract

The Japanese production system has an ethnic or national basis. There are considered to be three production components of the system-shop-floor-centred work organization, waste-free production control, and participative management in the context of cooperative labour relations. For each of these, it is possible to set up a Japanese-type'. The author is conducting research into the overseas operations of Japanese subsidiaries in automobile assembly. Japanese multinational enterprises presumably try to apply the system to their overseas operations to take advantage of its strengths; however, given that they have moved into a foreign country, presumably Japanese enterprises have to adapt to the management environment of the local area. This research investigates the following questions: (i) Does this 'application' and 'adaptation' result in a dilemma? (ii) What is actually being applied and what has not been possible to apply? (iii) How well is the balance between 'application' and 'adaptation' being achieved? According to surveys of Japanese manufacturing plants in North America, Asia, and Europe, the application of the system is possible. Of course this does not mean that it can be applied 100%. The pattern of application varies according to the management strategy of the Japanese enterprises.

 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abernathy, W. Ff; Clark, K. B. & Kantrow, A. M. (1983). Industrial Renaissance: Producing a Competitive Future for America, New York: Basic Books.

Abo, T. (1992). Overseas Production Activities of Nissan Motor Company: The Five Large Plants Abroad, in Sung-Jo Park (ed.), Managerial Efficiency in Competition and Cooperation, Colorado: Westview Press.

Abo, T. (ed.) (1994). Hybrid Factory: The Japanese Production System in the United States, New York: Oxford University Press.

Berggren, C. (1993). The Volvo Experience: Alternatives to Lean Production in the Swedish Auto Industry, London: MacMillan.

Beynon, H. (1973). Lane. Working for Ford, Allen

Bradley, K. & Hill, S. (1983). ‘After Japan’: The Quality Circle Transplant and Productive Efficiency, British Journal of Industrial Relations, LSE, XXI (3): 291-311.

Butman, J. (1991). Car Wars : How General Motors Europe Built ‘The Car of the Future’, London: Grafton Books.

Church, R. (1994). The Rise and Decline of the British Motor Industry, London: MacMillan.

Dore, R. (1973). British Factory-Japanese Factory: The Origins of National Diversity in Industrial Relations, California: University of California Press.

Dohse, K., Jurgens, U. & Malsch, T. (1985). From ‘Fordism’ to ‘Toyotaism’? The Social Organization of the Labour Process in the Japanese Automobile Industry, Politics & Society, 14(2): 115-46.

Dunnet, P. J. S. (1980). The Decline of the British Motor Industry, London: Croom Helm.

Fucini, J. J. & Fucini, S. (1990). Working for the Japanese: Inside Mazda’s American Auto Plant, New York: The Free Press.

Garrahan, P. & Stewart, P. (1992). The Nissan Enigma: Flexibility at Work in a Local Economy, London: Mansell.

Gordon, D. D. (1988). Japanese Management in America and Britain, Aldershot: Avebury.

Hayter, T. & Harvey, D. (eds.) (1993). The Factory and the City: The Story of the Malaysian Management Journal 2 (2), 55-71 (1997) Cowley Automobile Workers in Oxford, London: Mansell.

James, B. G. (1989). Trojan Horse: The Ultimate Japanese Challenge to Western Industry, London: W. H. Allen and Company.

Jones, S. (1991). Working for the Japanese: Myths and Realities, British Perceptions, London: MacMillan. lurgens, U., Malsch, T. & Dohse, K. (1993). Breaking from Taylorism: Changing Forms of Work in the Automobile Industry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. my u

XY Kenney, M. & Florida, R. (1993). Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S., New York: Oxford University Press. ed = Kumon, H. (1993). Japanese-affiliated Auto Plants in the United Kingdom, Journal of International Economic Studies, The Institute of Comparative Economic Studies, Hosei University, 7:67-88. (1994). International Transferability of the Japanese Production System: Japanese-affiliated Auto Plants in the USS.A., the U.K., and Taiwan, Journal of International Economic Studies, Hosei University, 8: 59-78. j.uum

Law, C. M. (1991). Restructuring the Global Automobile Industry: National and Regional Impacts, London: Routledge. //mm

Qyrewchuk, W. (1987). American Technology and the British Vehicle Industry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. htt

Oliver, N. & Wilkinson, B. (1988). The Japanization of British Industry, Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Ono, T. (1988). Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production, Cambridge, MA : Productivity Press.

Parker, M. & Slaughter, J. (1985). Inside the Circle: A Union Guide to QWL, Boston, MA: South End Press. (1988). Choosing Side: Union and the Team Concept, Boston, MA: South End Press.

Sherman, J. (1993). In the Rings of Saturn, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.

Starkey, K. & McKinlay, A. (1988). Organizational Innovation, Aldershot: Avebury.

Strange, R. (1993). Japanese Manufacturing Investment in Europe : Its Impact on the UK Economy, London: Routledge.

Tolliday, S. & ‘Zeitlin, J. (1987). The Automobile Industry and Its Workers, New York: St. Martin’s Press. (1991). The Power to Manage? : Employers and Industrial Relations in Comparative-Historical Perspective, London:Routledge.

Trevor, M. (1983). Japan’s Reluctant Multinationals: Japanese Management at Home and Abroad, New York: St. Martin’s Press.

White, M. & Trevor, M. (1983). Under Japanese Management: The Experience of British Workers, London: Heinemann.

Wikens, P. (1987). The Road to Nissan: Flexibility, Quality, Teamwork, London: MacMillan.

Wilkinson, B., Morris, J. & Oliver, N. (1989). Japanizing the World: The Case of Toyota, paper presented to the APROS Conference on Organizations, Australian National University, Canberra, 13-15 December.

Wilkinson, B. (1991). JIT/TQC Factory Regimes and Industrial Relations in Britain, paper presented at the Conference on Modernization empresaial y Cambios en Relaciones Industrials en paises de America Latina y Europe, Universidad Nacional de Columbia, Bogota, 9-13 April.

Wilks, S. (1984). Industrial Policy and the Motor Malaysian Management Journal 2 (2), 55-71 (1997) Industry, Manchester : Manchester University Press.

Williams, K., Williams, J. & Haslam, C. (1987). The Breakdown of Austin Rover: A Case Study in the Failure of Business Strategy and Industrial Policy, Leamington Spa: Berg Publishers Limited.

Willman, P. (1986). Technological Change, Collective Bargaining and Industrial Efficiency, Oxford: Clarendon Press. //mmj.uum.edu.my http

Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T. & Roos, D. (1990). The Machine that Changed the World, New York: Rawson Associates.

Wood, S. (1988). Some Observation on Industrial Relations in the British Car Industry 1985-87, in Dankbaar, B. et al. (eds.), Die Zunkunft der Arbeit in der Automobileindustrie, Berlin: Ed. Sigma.

Wood, S. (ed.) (1989). The Transformation of Work, London: Unwin Hyman. Malaysian Management Journal 2 (2), 55-71 (1997)

Downloads

Published

01-12-1997

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (1997): Malaysian Management Journal (MMJ) Vol. 2 No. 2 Dec 1997

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Kumon, H. (1997). The Japanese Production System and Its International Transferability. Malaysian Management Journal, 2(2), 55-71. https://doi.org/10.32890/mmj1997.2.2.5

Research impact

Harvested 2026-09-27
0 citations recorded so far

Counts differ between services because each indexes a different body of literature. None of them is the whole picture.

Identifiers DOI 10.32890/mmj1997.2.2.5