Assignment 1

Japanese management in U.S. companies

American-Japanese Company Sony in San Diego is an example of applied Japanese
management in the U.S. In 1981, the San Diego plant produced more than 700,000 color TV
sets, which are 1/3 of Sony's total production. Making a labor productivity similar to that of a
company in Japan is due and the atmosphere created in the company. Thus, there is no hierarchy,
managers and workers use their surname and have dinner together, and once a month a senior
manager is addressing the workers presenting sales and production targets and to encourage them
to express their wishes . The company organizes four times each year a reception for employees.
The attitude of American workers in the firm can be characterized by the view expressed by
Price, 54 years old, who works on the assembly line "... to work for Sony, is a bit like working
for your family”. Moreover, the plant director, Shiro Yamada, 58, said that there are very few
differences between American workers and their Japanese colleagues. He says that "Americans
are as aware of the importance of quality as the Japanese, but need to be motivated.
Shiro Yamada pay particular attention to the needs of workers. Once a year the workers
whose rate of absenteeism is zero, are invited to a restaurant in downtown. Attention will be paid
on working and living conditions of workers. Thus, if there is a complaint about the size of the
refrigerator, it will be replaced quickly. Vice Masayoshi Morin who is called by everyone Mike
take courses of Spanish in order to converse with Hispanic workers. Everywhere phones are
installed to allow communication and record anonymous suggestions and claims by the workers.
Hoping that workers will test their loyalty, the company strives to create close ties with them.
Promotions come from within; most assembly line supervisors are graduates of secondary
schools promoted because of their work and their loyalty towards the enterprise. Although sales
during the 1973-1975 television production was significantly decreased, nobody was fired and
they were asked to carry out other maintenance work to remain in the company. When one of the
first employees of the factory that demanded his resignation less than a year of employment,
Japanese leaders were surprised by this. Richard Crossman, human relations specialist for the
plant, explains "... they came to see me and asked me where they were wrong. I had to explain
that in southern California is common practice to leave the job ". The care for its employees gave
excellent results for the company. Numerous attempts aimed to implement a trade union were
rejected in a ratio of 3/1. Jean Timmerman, 22 years said: "The salary you are receiving at the
union was higher and social benefits were probably better, but eventually we decided to ignore
them". However, Sony hasn’t forced American workers to work in Japanese style. The use of
yellow overalls for workers on the assembly line was a failure, because they prefer to wear jeans.
Also, the company has tried to provide for an exercise period with workers in San Diego, as
exists in Japan, but backed off on that decision because of their opposition. The youngest of the
plant supervisor, Mark Dempsey, 23, admits that there is a cultural gap between Japanese and
Americans, saying: 'They do not understand that some of us think only at the weekend, while
most of them think how to resume work”. There are also different opinions of American workers
about Japanese management system: “the consensual decision making process cause delay, it
demonstrates an inability to decide”. However, most Americans appreciate the management
system even though some of them still consider it foreign. Significant for this purpose is the
statement supervisor Robert Williams: "A long time ago, Americans also take into consideration
the person like the Japanese, but that over time we lost sensitivity”.
Topics for discussion:
1. How do you value the Japanese management system? ½ page
 2. What kind of problems you think will have to solve Japanese managers in the U.S.? ½
page
3. How do you consider the knowledge transfer in management should be done? ½ page

Assignment 2
Prentice Machine Tools – which way?
Prentice Machine Tools is a mid size company that produces household hand tools, such
as hammers, jointers, screwdrivers drills and more. These are distributed locally in a US state.
The main competitors are a few large companies with nationwide distribution, like Rockwell,
Sear, Roebuck s Black-Decker and some specialist manufacturers of smaller size. Imports from
low cost countries have an increasing influence on the American market, representing 10% of
total sales. Prentice estimates their market share at 5%, while the first 4 major competitors have
about 60% of the total. The strongest competitor is much larger than the others.
The strategy adopted by company was always of setting prices 15% below the price of
the competing companies. Company does not spend almost anything to promote products, based
on the fact that the price will generate sales in key retail markets.
Prentice has also had a program to promote their own brands, which generated an
increase of 30% of total sales. It was not unusual to discover on some markets the brand
"Prentice Made”. Prentice earned a small profit of 3% of sales. This margin was maintained
approximately equal to the last 4 years. Market share both in industry and in the region has
fluctuated, although there was increasing pressure on the price of foreign competitors.
On 15 January this year one of the main competitors (number 3) announced a national
program to reduce retail prices by 10-25%, the promotional program worth several million
dollars, and redesigning the product range. The objective of this company was a substantial
increase in its market share. Company has implemented a similar strategy in Great Britain and
gets an increase of British market share by 10%.
In this situation the alternatives for Prentice management were:
1. Do not do anything which could put the company in a difficult situation, you and the
other major competitors would be aligned to the new prices.
2. An immediate reduction of prices to have the same advantage as in the previous
period, which could cause a similar action from some of the competitors and so a massive fall of
prices.
3. Implement a marketing combination, which would give the company enough time to
decide what to do next.
4. Attempt to reduce internal costs would mean they can handle any price reductions
imposed by the market.
Topics for discussion:
1. What is, in your opinion, the most appropriate strategy for Prentice management in
order to deal with the situation of reducing prices by one of the major competitors? Consider the
alternatives presented on the pros and cons of each. ½ page
2. On a long term, which would be the most appropriate strategy for the firm Prentice?
Explain the answer. ½ page

Assignment 3
Robots in production
 Like many other inventions, robots were created in the U.S., being perfected and used
with great success in Japan. For instance, in a factory producing cars "Datsun" located at 95 km
from Tokyo, robots and not people have a leading role. They weld car doors, apply the paint and
perform other tasks more efficient and more economical and faster than workers. In Japanese
enterprises, robots can be seen everywhere performing different tasks. It is expected that they
will in the future manipulate the elements of nuclear plants will be canvassing on the seabed, will
produce other robots. Director of the "Japanese Industrial Robot Association, Kanji Yonomoto
says that, only in 1979, in Japan there were 50,000 robots in industry, particularly active in
automotive, electronics and metallurgy. This figure includes automatic machines capable of
performing a single operation and that required a major adjustment to execute another operation.
Regarding the number of intelligent robots in Japan, it amounted to 10,000, they are controlled
by a computer, so come to distinguish between a car with two doors and one with four doors, or
to appreciate that it is not necessary to put ceiling in a convertible car.
Today, Japan uses the highest number of robots, being followed by USA and UK. A
spokesman of Nissan, Datsun car manufacturer, said that "96% of the tasks of the plant in Zama
assembly are done by automatic machines, highly perfected, controlled by computer and does
not give errors. Nissan began using robots for the first time in 1969. In 1975 it possessed 52, two
years later the figure reached 209, today more than 12.000. Another company spokesman stated
"... of course we seek to reduce our labor costs but this is not the only thing that interests us.
After the Japanese method, Nissan has been talking with trade unions for many years before
engaging in this way. One of their senior managers says that 99% of workers monitoring robots
have at least one diploma of secondary schools or technical schools and are happy that they can
do something other than painting or welding. Kajima, a Japanese trade union leader, said:
"Nobody is willing to spend eight hours a day in a paint shop where working conditions are
dangerous. We need robots. In terms of individual robots are welcome”.
To realize the use of robots in the Japanese companies is enough to imagine how a robot,
like in a fancy dance, imitates the man who vaporize paint from left to right, go, withdraw his
arm, bows, add one layer in a place difficult to reach, for all this to be retained in computer
memory. Then, painter robot is moving away and continues working until the computer receives
a stop command. Robots do not take coffee breaks or holidays, are equally productive at 6 at 23.
Japanese government offers tax cuts, small and medium enterprises to enable to follow
the example of Nissan, Toyota, Matsushita to buy robots.
Topics for discussion:
1. Develop a convincing explanation of Japanese management in the field of industrial
robots despite the fact that they were invented in the U.S. ½ page
2. Identify the main advantages and disadvantages of using robots. ½ page
 Assignment 4
In the following table are presented the answer of managers from different regions
regarding the best measures to increase labor productivity.

Measures to increase labor productivity

Zone
No. USA Europe Japan
Position Position Position
1 Inflation control 2 1 1
2 Incentives and government capital 1 3 4
investment
3 Incentives and funding of research by 5 5 4
government
4 Emphasize on managerial techniques 2 6 3
5 Workers training 6 7 2
6 Minimize government intervention 4 4 7
7 Reduce power of trade unions 7 2 8
8 Changes in the definition of items and 9 8 6
labor structure
9 Mitigating regulatory provisions on 8 9 9
health, pro-labor and Protection of
pollution

Topics for discussion:

Analyze the table focusing on the impact of every measure (explain how every one of them
influence the productivity) and explain the differences between the three regions (2-4 pages).