Joseph and Suzi Fucini's book chronicles the cultural clash between American hourly workers (and American managers) and the imperatives of the Japanese corporate management system which took place at Mazda's new Flat Rock, Michigan automotive plant between 1985 and 1989. Replete with convincing detail and human interest, the book examines the implications for both the American work force and Japanese industry of the growing corporate Japanese beach head in America which employed as of 1991 approximately 840,000 Americans. Viewed largely from the perspective of the factory floor, the book analyzes the potential incompatibility between U.S. worker expectations and the predictable demands of Japanese managers and the consequences. It is less effective in placing the problems it addresses within a broader economic and social perspective or in recommending practical solutions.
Launched with considerable ballyhoo in 1985, Mazda's Flat Rock plant had the strong support of various interests and constituencies in both countries. In conventional terms, the plant, which came into operation within two years and is one of the most efficient automotive plants in the U.S., has justified itself financially. Mazda has thereby provided high wage employment for thousands of American workers and managers in the economically depressed Rust Belt who would otherwise have lacked comparable job opportunities. The Flat Rock project was supported and subsidized through tax and other incentives by the State of Michigan at a cost of $125M as a partial solution to its unemployment problem. Mazda was thus encouraged to build its first U.S. plant in a unionized and high labor cost area which other Japanese auto makers avoided.
Because of pending trade barriers and the failure of Mazda's gas guzzling rotary engine-powered cars to sell in the U. S. market after oil prices rose in the early '80s, Mazda had little choice but to establish a manufacturing f...