Remade in America: Transplanting and Transforming Japanese Management Systems (Japan Business and Economics Series)

433 Pages·1999·23.23 MB·English

by  Jeffrey K. Liker, W. Mark Fruin, Paul S. Adler

Japan Business and Economics Series
This series provides a forum for empirical and theoretical work on Japanese
business enterprises, Japanese management practices, and the Japanese
economy. Japan continues to grow as a major economic world power, and
Japanese companies create products and deliver services that compete
successfully with those of the best firms around the world. Much can be
learned from an understanding of how this has been accomplished and how
it is being sustained.
The series aims to balance empirical and theoretical work, always in
search of a deeper understanding of the Japanese phenomenon. It also
implicitly takes for granted that there are significant differences between
Japan and other countries and that these differences are worth knowing
about. The series editors expect books published in the series to present a
broad range of work on social, cultural, economics, and political institutions.
If, as some have predicted, the twenty-first century sees the rise of Asia as
the most powerful economic region in the world, the rest of the world needs
to understand the country that is, and will continue to be, one of the major
players in this region.
Editorial Board
Jenny Corbett Hiroyuki Odagiri
University of Oxford University of Tsukuba
Mark Fruin Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara
San Jose State University University of Toyko
Coordinating Editor T T . _ . .
Hugh Patrick
Tsuneo Kagono Columbia University
Kobe University .
Eleanor Westney
Fumio Kodama Massachusetts Institute of
Research Center for Advanced Technology
Science and Technology
japan Business and Economics Series
Engineered in Japan: Japanese Technology-Management Practices
Jeffrey K. Liker, John E. Ettlie, and John C. Campbell, editors
Japan's Computer and Communications Industry:
'The Evolution of Giants and Global Competitiveness
Martin Fransman
Technology and Industrial Development in Japan
Hiroyuki Odagiri and Akira Goto
Knowledge Works: Managing Intellectual Capital at Toshiba
Mark Fruin
Networks, Markets, and the Pacific Rim: Studies in Strategy
Mark Fruin, editor
Innovation in japan
Akira Goto and Hiroyuki Odagiri, editors
Knowledge-Driven Work: Unexpected Lessons from
Japanese and United States Work Practices
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld et al.
Japanese Multinationals Abroad
Schon Beechler and Allan Bird, eds.
Remade in America: Transplanting and Transforming
Japanese Management Systems
Jeffrey K. Liker, W. Mark Fruin, and Paul S. Adler, eds.
Remade in America
Transplanting and Transforming
Japanese Management Systems
Edited by
Jeffrey K. Liker
W. Mark Fruin
Paul S. Adler
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 1999 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Remade in America : transplanting and transforming Japanese
management systems / edited by Jeffrey K. Liker, W. Mark Fruin,
Paul S. Adler.
p. cm. — (Japan business and economics series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-511815-4
I. Industrial management—Japan—Case studies. 2. Industrial
management—United States—Case studies. 3. Technology
transfer—Japan—Case studies. 4. Technology transfer—United
States—Case studies. 5. Comparative management. I. Liker, Jeffrey K.
II. Fruin, W. Mark, 1943- III. Adler, Paul S. IV. Series.
HD70.J3 R46 1999
658.4'00952—dell 98-24205
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
In 1991, at the instigation of Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, the U.S.
Congress provided $10 million to the Department of Defense to establish a
program for U.S.-Japanese industry and technology management training.
The goal of the program was to improve American industrial competitiveness
by helping to develop engineers and managers who can speak Japanese and
thus learn about Japanese technology management practices directly from
experience in Japan during the course of their academic and professional
careers. Another chief component of the program was to research and analyze
the technology management practices that give top Japanese companies a
competitive edge in their industries. The University of Michigan's Japan Tech-
nology Management Program (JTMP) was one of the first recipients of a
grant from this program, administered by the Air Force Office of Scientific
Research (AFOSR) (over time, twelve such programs were funded by
AFOSR). The JTMP focused much of its early efforts on research covering a
broad spectrum of the technology life cycle, from basic research to manufac-
turing. One product of that early effort was Engineered in Japan: Japanese
Technology Management Practices (Oxford University Press, 1995), which
went on to win a 1996 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Re-
search. Now we are happy to share this second book focusing on Japanese
manufacturing management systems as they have been brought over to the
United States in what some call "transplant operations."
At the time the idea for this book evolved in 1996, the JTMP had been
in operation for five years. It seemed time to begin another major book-
writing effort. Mark Fruin, on the faculty at the University of British Colum-
bia, was visiting the University of Michigan for several years, and Paul Adler
VI PREFACE
at the University of Southern California agreed to join our team. We all had
direct experience with Japanese manufacturing operations in the United States
and agreed on three things: first, there were some truly high-performing Jap-
anese manufacturing plants in the United States; second, some top U.S. firms
were emulating successful manufacturing practices from Japanese plants lo-
cated in both Japan and the United States; third, the management systems in
these Japanese transplants and in their U.S.-owned emulators were neither
exactly like what we had seen in Japan nor like traditional American plants—
they were hybrids. In addition, there were still legions of traditional American
plants that clearly had not learned the lessons available to them from world-
class Japanese operations. We concluded that it was urgent to identify the
ways in which the approaches that had proven themselves in Japanese man-
ufacturing could be effectively brought to the United States.
We therefore decided to create an edited volume that would bring together
the most knowledgable scholars in the field to summarize the available evi-
dence and present the most compelling theories. Early in 1996, we identified
these scholars and invited them to draft papers for the projected volume. That
September, we invited the authors and a number of other experts to a con-
ference in Ann Arbor. At the conference, each paper was critiqued by the
other attendees; we conducted a broad-ranging discussion of the key issues
underlying the projected volume, and authors were encouraged to rework
their papers to incorporate the results of this discussion. The resulting papers
constitute the chapters in this book (some will also appear in different ver-
sions in journals). As editors, we drafted an introductory chapter that pro-
vided a conceptual framework for the collection.
What emerges is a complex, multifaceted, but coherent picture of the
transfer of Japanese manufacturing management principles to the United
States. Taken as a whole, the chapters make clear that this transfer is not
linear and mechanical but, rather, a complex and evolutionary process. As
we plunge into an increasingly global economy, we need to learn how better
to manage that process. We hope the present volume offers some conceptual
handles on that huge challenge.
This book was written for scholars interested in Japanese business, engi-
neering, and manufacturing management and for managers and engineers
with interests in manufacturing. The chapters provided a mix of in-depth case
studies, conceptual frameworks, and statistical studies. We have avoided spe-
cialized academic jargon, though we assume some familiarity with basic con-
cepts of Japanese manufacturing methods (e.g., JIT, pull systems, and SPC)
and with general management concepts.
Many people and organizations made this book possible. We must first
thank our contributors, who joined this venture without realizing how de-
manding the editors would be. We also thank colleagues who are not rep-
resented in this volume but who participated in the September 1996 confer-
ence as discussants and reviewers and who significantly shaped the book:
Steve Babson, Bruce Kogut, Will Mitchell, and Mayer Zald. We thank the
Air Force Office of Scientific Research for its financial support and, in par-
PREFACE Vii
ticular, Koto White, who ran the program at AFOSR, for her enthusiastic
and effective leadership. We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication
beyond the call of duty of Heidi Tietjen, associate director of the Japan Tech-
nology Management Program. One of our inspirational leaders for this book
was John Shook, director of JTMP, who provided sage advice at our confer-
ence and influenced our thinking in countless ways through sharing his ex-
periences in bringing the Toyota Production System to the United States. John
Campbell and Brian Talbott, codirectors of JTMP, also contributed wit, wis-
dom, and generous support. Finally, we thank Herb Addison at Oxford Uni-
versity Press for his invaluable support and encouragement.
Ann Arbor, Michigan J. K. L.
San Jose, California W. M. F.
Los Angeles, California P. S. A.
February 1998
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Acknowledgments
Chapter 2: This article is an extended version of an article in the Journal
of World Business (Pil and MacDuffie 1999). It is based in part on research
at NUMMI conducted jointly with David Levine and Barbara Goldoftas.
Partial funding was provided by MIT's International Motor Vehicle Program.
This version has benefited from comments by Ed Lawler, Terje Gronning,
Charles Heckscher, Seok-Woo Kwon, Katherine Xin, and other contributors
to this volume.
Chapter 4: We are grateful to NSK Corporation for opening the door to
us, providing generously of staff time, and openly sharing information with
us. Specific individuals at NSK who gave generously of their time and support
include S. Fuchigami, H. Otsuka, D. Rathmann, D. Reinhart, H. Tazaki, and
T. Yano. Professors Paul Adler, Susan Helper, Bruce Kogut, and Eleanor
Westney offered valuable comments on earlier drafts. This project was sup-
ported by a faculty fellowship from Joel Tauber Manufacturing Institute and
support from the Japan Technology Management Program at the University
of Michigan (under Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant DOD-G-
F49620-93-1-0612).
Chapter 5: An abridged version of this chapter appeared in California Man-
agement Review, vol. 39, no. 4 (summer 1997). We are grateful to Honda
of America Manufacturing and the Honda suppliers who generously provided
time and access to their operations for this project. Thanks also to Paul Adler,
Robert Cole, Mark Fruin, Martin Kenney, Ann Marie Knott, David Levine,
Jeffrey Liker, Charles Sabel, and participants in Wharton's Organizational