Japanese Management Techniques Research Articles

JAPON YÖNETİM SİSTEMİ OMIKOSHI YÖNETİMİ İLKELERİNİN GELENEKSEL BATILI YÖNETİM YAKLAŞIMINA EKLENMESİ: UYGUN OLUR MU?

This conceptual research study focuses on to provide a framework on whether Japanese omikoshi management techniques can be applied in traditional Western management style or not and to suggest its potential effects. The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century in Great Britain, and it spread rapidly to other countries in Europe and the U.S and then to other parts of the world. Though some Eastern countries, including Japan, began undergoing industrial revolutions and process of economic transformation later than the West, it’s obvious that Japanese companies have dramatically brought their competitive challenge to the early-industrialized Western states within the concept of organizational management and superior manufacturing management systems since 1960s. In sum, this study gives an insight into the main principles in the Western management and Japanese management techniques by comparing their major notions and argues omikoshi management techniques and its prospective outcomes when it is applied to the today’s Western management style.

Quantitative analysis of Kaizen philosophy on productivity improvement

Due to rising global competition and major changes in consumer demands, preferences, and tastes, many businesses today use the Japanese management technique known as Kaizen to adjust their production processes to meet these expectations. The sole goal of this study was to improve the overall productivity of medium-scale industries by integrating the kaizen philosophy into the production process. Most learning exercises carried out as part of kaizen initiatives were designed to improve social outcomes regarding employees’ problem-solving skills and attitudes. In particular, Kaizen coordinators are concerned with employees’ understanding of continuous improvement and their communication and problem-solving abilities. The pilot project was carried out in the production lines where vanilla extracts were being produced. The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle technique was used in this study to improve productivity in the production process. The pitch diagram was used as a supportive tool. The two prominent techniques that mainly contributed to the increase in productivity were the PDCA cycle and the pitch diagram. Kaizen implementation led to a 37% increase in the company's total productivity. To increase productivity even further, water tapping and measurement were merged. As a result, it took just 2 minutes instead of 5 to fill a bottle with 20 liters of water. This study concludes that the Kaizen philosophy and elimination of non-value-adding tasks from the production process improve output.

Humanizing Industrialization?: Japanese Productivity Methods, Ethiopian Factories, and Low Modernism in Foreign Aid

The past decade has seen a gradual convergence between the modernizing, top-down development agendas associated with “new donors” to Africa and the human development agenda more commonly linked to traditional donors. But while instruments such as the Sustainable Development Goals now demand both industrialization and empowerment, donors still struggle to reconcile these competing expectations. This article uses a variety of qualitative data to examine one such project: the attempted transfer of Japanese management techniques (or kaizen) to workplaces across Ethiopia as part of Japanese official development assistance. Asking why and how the Japanese and Ethiopian governments pursue these aims, the article finds an intervention that is low modernist in design: its goals and logics are modernist but tempered by a respect for local knowledge and a preference for evolutionary over revolutionary change. The fact that Japan is the donor to promulgate such a paradigm is no coincidence, I find, given the historical origins of kaizen and Japan’s long-standing hybrid role in international development debates. Low modernist interventions such as Ethiopian kaizen demonstrate the utility of moving beyond dichotomies (China/West, growth/equity, efficiency/empowerment). But in both Ethiopia and the Japanese aid apparatus, powerful centrifugal forces still make low modernism a difficult balancing act to achieve.

Donor‐Centric, Japanese Management Techniques Boost Donations

Successful FundraisingVolume 24, Issue 4 p. 3-3 Management Procedures Donor-Centric, Japanese Management Techniques Boost Donations First published: 15 March 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/sfr.30343Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume24, Issue4April 2016Pages 3-3 RelatedInformation

Chanakya Sutras and Arthasastra : The Gospels of Corporate Management for Modern Application

The modern world corporate management and corporate governance is dominated by the theories and practices of American Management System, Japanese Management System and European Management System. Japanese Management techniques and practices are the champion concepts for any organization to follow in the context of quality management, production efficiency management, market competition management and above all human capital management etc. Japanese have established the dynamics of human capital and knowledge management as the best practices for any organization. The soundness of Japanese Management is derived from its treasure through revival of the Samurai System and traditional knowledge banks. European and American Management System are known for their contributions in the industrialization process of the world in the 19th and 20th century in the pre and post colonialism era. Indian oriental texts, gospels, practices, concepts, doctrines and arguments through logic are the sources of many Japanese management philosophies. India is a store house of pragmatic management and flawless applications in its ancient history phases. Oriental management texts and concepts need revival and rediscovery of the principles and system of applied management for use in the modern corporate world. Indian oriental system can and will create a system of its own as (IMS) Indian Management System like the Japanese. Proved and applied management of Chanakya during the Maurya Dynasty is historically evident as the best ever management practices India followed. Arthasastra and Chanakya Sutras are the two gospels of Indian management, enough to establish IMS the Indian management system for the modern corporate world of 21st century. These gospels applications are examined in the contemporary context for corporate use.

Comparative Study on Indian and Japanese Management Techniques. Indian Perspective on Failures in Indo-Japanese Organizations

The Japanese management techniques always stand for and is known for quality, efficiency and innovation. By the influx of Japanese organizations in India it is evident that Indian businesses have benefited and management practices have been influenced by them. In spite of the positive influence by the Japanese, it is imperative to address the series of labor unrests in the Japanese collaborated organizations, its root causes and characteristics. This paper presents a comparative study of the general characteristics of Japanese and Indian management techniques and style and analyses of the root causes of the labor unrests from an Indian perspective. Comparative study has been done under five headings of Employment policies, Industrial relations, Work Organization, Operational and Managerial aspects and Operating Strategy. Analysis of the root causes of these labor unrest has given a deep insight into how cultural incompatibilities arise in organizations and how difficult it is to tackle it. The details of the labor unrests that happened in Maruti Suzuki Manesar plant and Toyota Kirloskar motors Banglore plant are also exhibited.

Japanese Management Techniques to Enhance the Governance of Greek Small and Medium-Sized Firms

Given the economic and social crisis Greece is going through, it seems clear that the Greek future over the next few years will rest on macroeconomic actions, both national and international. This undeniable assertion notwithstanding, I do maintain that the Greek private sector has an important role to play in overcoming the present crisis. This especially applies to Greek small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which comprise an important proportion of Greek firms.The use of adequate SME governance tools at Greek companies might be beneficial. Good governance leads to a better relationship among stakeholders, increases the effectiveness of board work and activates unknown potential at the firm through better principles and practices.Some Japanese tools that enhance governance as could be applied to Greek SMEs and smaller state organizations are presented. In general, SMEs, with fewer relative resources, face important conceptual and methodological difficulties when implementing a governance structure. This assertion is also true in Greece. Over the past three or four decades, however, Japanese management techniques that can be applied to implement and consolidate SME governance have gained diffusion all over the world. These tools are particularly apt for Greek SMEs, due to their flexibility, low cost, and rapid effectiveness.Specific examples of applications to enhance governance at Greek SMEs are provided. Tools applied are (1) A new SME governance indicator; (2) Hoshin management; and (3) Effective meeting technology. The three tools interact in a systemic mode.

Applying Lean Techniques in Hospital

US hospitals aim to provide quality service and treatment at reasonable cost to their customers but public have been complaining about the increasing health costs, hospital charges, doctor’s fees, poor service quality, long waiting times etc. Rising public concerns about health costs and high insurance premiums have been major election issues. Environmental issues have also come to focus and hospitals are trying to become environmentally friendly. Hospitals have been seriously considering employing methods to improve patient care, efficiency and to reduce costs. There have been many attempts to adopt Japanese management technique popularly known as lean techniques in hospitals. Many successes have been reported. The authors have reviewed the literature and have identified the reasons for success. The authors have also found a hospital where the lean implementation was a partial success and discussed in detail the reasons. The authors recommend some guidelines for hospitals embarking on lean implementation.

Méthodes d’amélioration organisationnelle appliquées aux activités des établissements de transfusion sanguine (ETS) : Lean manufacturing, VSM, 5S

Background Continuous improvement of efficiency as well as new expectations from customers (quality and safety of blood products) and employees (working conditions) imply constant efforts in Blood Transfusion Establishments (BTE) to improve work organisations. Methods The Lean method (from “Lean” meaning “thin”) aims at identifying wastages in the process (overproduction, waiting, over-processing, inventory, transport, motion) and then reducing them in establishing a mapping of value chain (Value Stream Mapping). It consists in determining the added value of each step of the process from a customer perspective. Lean also consists in standardizing operations while implicating and responsabilizing all collaborators. The name 5S comes from the first letter of five operations of a Japanese management technique: to clear, rank, keep clean, standardize, make durable. The 5S method leads to develop the team working inducing an evolution of the way in the management is performed. Results The Lean VSM method has been applied to blood processing (component laboratory) in the Pays de la Loire BTE. The Lean 5S method has been applied to blood processing, quality control, purchasing, warehouse, human resources and quality assurance in the Rhône-Alpes BTE. The experience returns from both BTE shows that these methods allowed improving: (1) the processes and working conditions from a quality perspective, (2) the staff satisfaction, (3) the efficiency. Conclusions These experiences, implemented in two BTE for different processes, confirm the applicability and usefulness of these methods to improve working organisations in BTE.

Theory Z: Opening the corporate door for participative management

This article presents a commentary on William Ouchi's book “Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge.” The author explains that Ouchi's book was a response to the management processes of the 60s and 70s, and served as a roadmap for those companies threatened by successful Japanese management techniques. The author outlines the seven elements of a Type Z organization, including long-term employment, consensual decision-making, individual responsibility, slow evaluation and promotion, implicit control with explicit measures, moderately specialized career path, and holistic concern.

Constructing the image of the other: a post‐colonial critique of the adaptation of Japanese human resource management practices

Organization theory is becoming increasingly pluralistic, not only as continuous theoretical and methodological developments, but also in terms of facilitating a more polyvocal view on organizing and administrative practices. The suggested “postmodern turn” in organization theory and HRM theory has given voice to marginal or excluded minority groups in organization. Informed by post‐colonial theory, this article presents a study of the use of a Japanese management technique,kaizen, in an alien socio‐cultural and institutional context, Sweden. In order to mediate the differences between Japanese and Swedish culture, the image of the other, the generalized view of the unfamiliar subject, is constructed in order to de‐paradoxify and eliminate ambiguities in the culture of the other and to facilitate the adaptation of Japanese human resource management practices.

21st century, the age of networks, join LAJACONET, the Latin America-Japan AOTS Consulting Network

The Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) (www.aots.or.jp) was created in 1959 with the support of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry as an agency for technical cooperation with developing countries. AOTS has trained more than 93000 people from about 150 countries and regions. Since its creation, AOTS has insisted that what it provides is ''not assistance but cooperation''. This spirit has led to the establishment of AOTS alumni societies, who work closely with AOTS. Today there are over 60 organizations in 40 countries around the world. Among other activities, AOTS trainees conduct training courses and promote AOTS scholarships so that more people receive training in Japan under the AOTS programs. The Latin America Japan AOTS Consulting Network (LAJACONET) was created by a group of AOTS trainees, as a way to contribute to the development of their region. LAJACONET was established as a network of consultants who work together across borders studying the practical implementation of Japanese management and quality control techniques in Latin American countries. This article describes the background that led to the creation of LAJACONET, its activities, basic policy, structure and operation. Also included are case studies from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, which illustrate the results LAJACONET members have had in implementing and adapting Japanese management techniques in Latin America. More information and case studies can be found at www.lajaconet.com.

The management of labour in Japanese manufacturing plants in China

While there is now considerable scholarship concerning Japanese management practices in their overseas production operations in Europe and North America, little is known about Japanese investment in other parts of the world, especially in Asia. This paper draws on on-going research into the nature and operations of Japanese manufacturing investments in China. The paper focuses on interviews primarily with Chinese managers in twenty plants in three locations within China, to examine their personnel polices and practices, and draw from this their overall industrial relations strategies. The main findings were, first, that, despite claims of cultural similarity between China and Japan, personnel management practices were generally not transferred from Japan to the plants in China. Second, practices that may appear as Japanese inspired were often informed by local practices. Third, there was diversity in the forms of practices used, indicating neither sophistication nor a singular recipe of management methods. Thus, the paper seeks to challenge proponents of Japanization who claim, essentially, that Japanese management techniques are predicated on the construction of particular forms of social relations around work that allow sophisticated, and integrated, production-management systems to function. Instead, depending on a complex interrelation between location industry and the history of each plant, managers sought to use various local and 'universal' (generic to capitalism) strategies and practices to control and utilize labour.

Diseconomies of endogenous technological change in the globalizing continuous improvement firm

This paper is a contribution to the body of literature on the Japanese management techniques known as kaizen, or continuous improvement technologies. The topic is introduced with a brief review of the findings of several studies on kaizen and the experience of Japanese firms in transferring the kaizen technologies abroad, followed by an analysis of the process of endogenous technological change within the context of continuous improvement. It is argued that global versions of the CIF are subject to unique systemic problems, including: (1) a persistent increment to the cost of maintaining standardized processes; (2) a reduction in the rate of improvement creation due to a loss of synergism; (3) an increase in the time required to implement improvements, and reduced effectiveness of installed improvements; and (4) a likelihood that some improvements will fail to enhance customer value in markets other than the ones in which they originate. The widely varying experiences of the Japanese CIFs in transferring the continuous improvement technologies abroad are attributed, at least in part, to these internal systemic weaknesses of the global CIF. Furthermore, it is concluded that the strategic advantage of a globally dispersed CIF is reduced below that of a geographically concentrated CIF.

Japanese management techniques: hidden lessons for educational administrators

Japan, a leading industrial country in the world, has adopted management techniques that are quite different from those of other countries in the world. These management practices include secure and lifetime employment for workers, consensus and participatory decision-making, group harmony, and group action. Others are relatively slow evaluation and promotion, more informal controls and less formalized measures, broader and non specialized career paths, and greater concern for workers. This paper discusses key aspects of Japanese managerial practices. To achieve "productivity through people, " educational administrators should adopt plausible aspects of Japanese management techniques in their work settings.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Jeffrey James, Consumption and Development.Wolfgang Lute (ed.), The Future Population of the World: What Can We Assume Today?Bishwapriya Sanyal, Cooperative Autonomy: The Dialectic of State‐NGOs Relationship in Developing Countries.Philippe Sands (ed.) Greening International Law.Valerie Barzetti and Yanina Rovinski (eds), Towards a Green Central America: Integrating Conservation and Development.Sheldon Annis and contributors, Poverty, Natural Resources and Public Policy in Central America.Janet Henshall Momsen (ed.), Women and Change in the Caribbean: A Pan Caribbean Perspective.Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism.Ellen R. Judd, Gender and Power in Rural North China.Hans‐Dieter Evers and Heiko Schrader (eds), The Moral Economy of Trade: Ethnicity and Developing Markets.Ken Young, Islamic Peasants and the State: The 1908 Anti‐Tax Rebellion in West Sumatra.Abdolali Lahsaeizadeh, Contemporary Rural Iran.Peter Berman and M. E. Khan (eds). Paying for India's Health Care.Howard Barnum and Joseph Kutzin, Public Hospitals in Developing Countries: Resource Use, Cost, Financing.Sirimal Abeyratne, Anti‐Export Bias in the ‘Export‐Oriented’ Economy of Sri Lanka.R. Kaplinsky with A. Posthuma, Easternisation: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries.Gay W. Seidman Manufacturing Militance. Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970–1985.R. F. Watters, Poverty and Peasantry in Peru's Southern Andes, 1963‐90.

Factors Predicting Employees' Approval of Lean Production

A number of influential studies advocate the adoption of a lean production system (LPS) in order to improve quality and efficiency in Western automotive plants. Critics argue that such systems place excessive demands upon employees. Very little survey data, however, is available on employees' attitudes toward lean production since companies are frequently reluctant to grant such access. Our survey of 200 employees in a Japanese-owned automotive plant in Australia using lean production found that commitment to the company, speed of work and, in special circumstances, age were predictors of employees' approval of the LPS. Employees' perceived levels of stress and Japanese management techniques, such as consultation and a teamwork orientation, were not predictors of approval of the LPS, a finding that contradicts earlier research in this field. Other variables in the analysis, including employee demographics, had no predictive value. We use the results to comment on the wider debate about the transfer of Japanese manufacturing practices to Western countries.

The return of 7-eleven… from Japan: The vanguard program

This article examines how Ito-Yokado Co. Ltd. of Japan, the long-time licensee of the Southland Corporation's 7-Eleven store chain, has come back to the United States to acquire its parent company and has begun to implement the Japanese firm's management techniques at 7-Eleven stores in the United States. While we have been fully aware of the Japanese competitive juggernaut in the consumer durable products industry, we rarely hear about it in services, let alone in retailing. As the Japanese licensee's takeover of the American convenience-store parent company suggests, the next generation of Japanese competition may come unexpectedly from service sectors such as retail business.

THE ADOPTION OF JAPANESE MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN BRAZILIAN INDUSTRY*

Changing competitive conditions in Brazilian industry are leading companies to seek Japanese management techniques as a means of rapidly raising productivity and quality. Macroeconomic instability, low levels of educational achievement and poor labour relations would seem to present barriers to the use of these techniques. Case studies of firms in the motor components industry show that firms in Brazil can make radical changes to their production systems, overcome educational deficiencies and also secure reverse past employment relations practices in order to obtain some degree of acceptance of change by labour. However, there are reasons for supposing that these successes may be difficult to sustain in a difficult and turbulent macroeconomic environment.

Technique and system: The spread of Japanese management techniques to developing countries

In this paper a distinction is drawn between the isolated use of individual Japanese management techniques and their adoption in an integrated package as part of a production system. Although the use of individual techniques does confer significant benefits to innovating firms, it is clear from international experience that the major gains arise from systemic application. The central objective of this paper is to explore whether there are obstacles specific to less-developed countries (LDCs) in the systemic application of Japanese management techniques. The major forces driving the adoption of these new management techniques are reviewed, based upon research in Latin America, India and Zimbabwe. Then three major LDC-specific factors affecting systemic adoption are considered—human resources, interfirm cooperation and management.