Japanese & American Auto Industries

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT DIFFERENCES BETWEENTHE JAPANESE AND AMERICAN AUTOMOBILEMANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Differences in the approach to production management are among the most significant of the factors to be considered in any proposal by American and Japanese automobile manufacturers to cooperate in joint venture operations. These differences are examined with respect to management techniques generally, quality control, and hightech manufacturing processes.

American interest in Japanese management techniques developed as a consequence of the success of Japanese firms in the domestic markets of the United States, and in other markets around the world; an interest which was heightened by the fact that Japanese successes often occurred primarily at the expense of American industrial firms. As a consequence of such developments, many American firms have experimented with Japanese management techniques.

Not all management and organizational theorists and analysts in the United States are convinced that American management techniques are inferior to those of the Japanese. Even

when the merit of Japanese management techniques is recognized in the United States, there is often opposition to an emulation by American firms of Japanese management techniques. In some instances, opposition is based on a contention that the specific management techniques employed by the Japanese are not at the root of the

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rogram in the 1970s. The special project team approach is destined to cause clashes between Japanese managers and American labor unions, if joint venture employees in the United States are unionized. Getting away from the multilayered organizational hierarchy has also proved difficult for most American organizations. Most Japanese companies, in contrast to their American counterparts, operate without an organization chart. This low structure characteristic makes it easier to use the special project team technique discussed above. In this same context, Japanese organizations tend to reject the American concept of a very limited managerial span of control. Excessive bureaucracy, thus, is not a characteristic of Japanese companies. As much as American companies speak of cutting fat, however, they 38continue, on the average, to be highly bureaucratic organizations. Lower levels of bureaucracy and sacrifice on the part of Japanese managers in American subsidiaries of Japanese organizations has, in most instances, eased the problem of negotiating with American workers and their unions. Managerial sacrifice, however, is not a typical characteristic of American management generally, or American managers individually. Fo

Category: Business - J