Automotive industry, Japanese

The usage pattern in Europe and Japan is more dependent upon the automotive industry. However, with the recent concern about acid rain, the European and U.S. markets should show increased interest in fluorocarbon elastomers for pollution control appHcations. On the other hand, the Japanese market has a sizable outlet in electrical and general machinery manufacturing (eg, copiers). Petroleum appHcations are of Htfle interest outside the United States. 

Also the automotive industry in other countries has started to produce restriction lists. The Japanese automotive industry (JAMA) introduced in 2005 voluntary air quality standards which limits the emissions inside cars. 

A case study was performed in one of the automotive components manufacturers in Malaysia. This company selected was based on its achievement as a TPS model company awarded by Malaysia Japan automotive industries cooperatiOTi (MAJAICO) in year 2007. MAJAICO is a 5-year project from 2006 until 2011 initiated under the Malaysia Japan economic partnership agreement (MJEPA) to develop and improve the Malaysian automotive industry to become more competitive as global automotive players. The main function of MAJAICO is to introduce continuous improvement activities in manufacturing companies mainly through total implementation of lean manufacturing. Under MAJAICO project, TPS has known as lean production system (LPS) where the activities have been conducted by the Japanese experts and local experts from perusahaan otomobil nasional sendirian berhad (PROTON) and pemsahaan otomobil kedua sendirian berhad (PERODUA). 

A response to volume variation of both the external and internal type has been a transition away from a batch to a flow model. As with many other trends, this one has been conhned mostly to single companies — sometimes with immediate suppliers included. An industry in the United States where it has advanced is the automotive industry. The Big 3 have copied Japanese approaches to what has become known as lean manufacturing. Operations are closely linked with components fabricated in the morning finding their way into a vehicle in the afternoon. 

The Japanese automotive industry is a case in point. Not only did practices like Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time transform the fortunes of the companies that used them domestically, it has also changed production practices internationally. For the firms that have gained from using such tools and techniques it is inconceivable that they should turn back the clock to the time before they were used. Consequently, it seems that management tools and techniques are not inappropriate per se, but can cause problems if the tool is inappropriate for the problem at hand, or appropriate but misapplied. And, it is at this point that one has to understand the problem that is created by the method by which most tools and techniques are created and then sold into firms. 

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