Supplier-Assembler Relationships in the Motor Industry

Abstract

Paralleling Japan’s industrial success is the ‘spreading awareness that a vast group of small businesses support it’ (Sato, 1986, p. 152). Therefore, since the industrial success of Japan depends more than anything else upon the success of the fabrication and assembly-type industries, increased interest in small business is above all focused on those engaged in supplier-assembler (final manufacturer) relationships or subcontracting. This chapter examines the formation and workings of Japan’s inter-firm relationships for division of labour, known as shitauke, or subcontracting. The motor industry is taken as the representative fabrication and assembly industry.KeywordsSmall BusinessIncentive SystemCooperative AssociationKanban SystemMotor IndustryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.