Professional Documents
Culture Documents
www.elsevier.com/locate/jom
Abstract
Japanese production management (JPM) became a dominant influence in the field of operations management when, in the early
1980s, knowledge of its main elements became known beyond Japan. Those elements quick set-up, small lots, cells, kanban, and
so on are well known. Rather than explaining them again, this papers objective is to explore the sequence of events leading to JPM
as a competitive force globally, as well as its impact on theory and practices in operations management. JPMs evolution includes
shifting terminologies, fusions and adulterations; limited extensions from manufacturing into services and innovative enhancements, largely of Western origin. Longitudinal research data, based on inventory trends, provide insights on JPMs diffusions and its
uneven results. Latter-day puzzling lapses and disappointments, among Japanese as well as Western companies, raise questions
about JPMs sustainability, as well as some of its changing manifestations. While the core of Japanese production management, now
over three decades old, appears to have become solidly mainstream, its current and future states are problematic.
# 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Operations management history; Just in time; Total quality; Toyota system; Global inventory trends
404
405
406
Table 1
Total quality control: categories and concepts
Category
Concept
1. Organization
2. Goals
Production responsibility
Habit of improvement
Perfection
3. Basic principles
Process control
Easy-to-see quality
Insistence on compliance
Line-stop for nonconformities
Correcting ones own defectives
100% check
Project-by-project improvement
4. Facilitating concepts
Exposure of problems
Fail-safe devices
N = 2 (first and last piece inspection)
Analysis tools
QC circles
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
Table 2
Lean trendsbest to worst, by region
Sectors
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Grand average
Score
Scandinavia
United Kingdom
Southern Europe
Asiana/South Africa
United States
Germany/Austria
Benelux/Ireland
Canada/Mexico/Israel
Japan
Sample size
0.88
0.78
0.77
0.67
0.67
0.61
0.66
0.60
0.35
68
92
64
111
511
61
36
88
182
0.64
1213
417
418
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