Japanese philosophy

The comparison with business is simple the depth of the water in the lake represents inventory and the rocks represent problems. These problems might include such things as inaccurate forecasts, unreliable suppliers, quality problems, bottlenecks, industrial relations problems and so on. The Japanese philosophy is that inventory merely hides the problems. Their view is that the level of water in the lake should be reduced (say to level B in Figure 5.11). Now the captain of the ship is forced to confront the problems - they cannot be avoided. In the same way if inventory is reduced then management must grasp the various nettles of forecast inaccuracy, unreliable suppliers and so on. 

Quality in Japan. Japanese economic prowess has been attributed variously to such quahty improvement activities as quahty circles, statistical process control (SPG), just-in-time dehvery (JIT), and zero defects (ZD). However, the real key to success hes in the apphcation of numerous quahty improvement tools as part of a management philosophy called Kaizen, which means continuous improvement (10). 

During the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. companies tried to adopt Japanese improvement techniques, but not the philosophy. Thus quahty circles, ie, problem-solving groups of production workers, were initiated (11,12). When this approach failed to achieve anticipated results, it was replaced by other techniques, such as SPG (13), JIT (14), and ZD. This use of contrasting approaches has been summarized (15). 

The plastics properties catalogue includes single-point data, multi-point data, processing data, product description texts and customer service information. You can select plastic products for your specific application by using the query options. The main feature of the CAMPUS philosophy is comparable data. The properties are based on the international standards ISO 10350 for Single-Point data and ISO 11403-1, -2 for Multi-Point data. CAMPUS is available in English, German, Spanish, French and Japanese. 

As noted earlier in this book, these conditions began to change fairly dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s. An abundance of synthetic new products became available to a rapidly growing population of Americans (and Europeans and Japanese) who quickly developed a philosophy of "use it up throw it out. And that philosophy quickly led to serious new problems of air and water pollution and of waste management. This revolution in waste disposal... 

Taguchi. He has developed both a philosophy and a methodology for the process of quality improvement, which depend heavily on statistical concepts and tools. Many Japanese firms have applied these methods with great success. 

American or Japanese physicians are frequently surprised at European drug labels. The brevity and the relative scarcity of quantitative data reflect a very different philosophy. Such labels arise from a regulatory milieu which itself has a different philosophy, expecting product manufacturers to assume responsibilities that would be accepted by the regulatory authorities in the United States and Japan. There is no European equivalent of the worldwide enforcement arm of the FDA. 

In the course of the dialogues in 1971 and 1972., Kissinger and Nixon presented to the Chinese two key areas in which their national interests coincided the need to restrain Soviet and Japanese militarism and expansionism, and the need to contain creeping Soviet influence in Asia. As Nixon put it, China and the United States shared these congruent interests in terms of national security, not in terms of philosophy or... 

As a result of this dramatic shift in operating philosophy, both U.S. and Japanese auto industries are more robust, innovative, and cost efficient today than ever before. The real winner is the consumer, because the quality of today s cars is so much better than a decade ago. This is true of virtually any product these days. I can remember when consumers always purchased the warranty when buying a television, because they would last only six months or so. Today, warranties are not nearly as popular because the quality of the products is so good. 

The Extended Enterprise has also drawn the attention of the business press in an article authored by Jeffrey Dyer. It is offered as a case study of transferring the respected Japanese supplier relationship model, referred to as keiretsu, to the United States. Dyer describes the motivations and the impact of the Extended Enterprise partnership philosophy on product cost and development cycle time. 

Techniques that link housekeeping to safety, productivity and quality have become prominent. One example is known as 5S s. Based upon five Japanese words Figure 2.6.7), it is a tool which encourages employees to improve their own working conditions and reduce waste in all its forms. The essential philosophy of the process is to engage employees in... 

Kaizen It is a Japanese word derived from a philosophy of gradual day-by-day betterment of fife and spiritual enlightenment. This approach has been adopted in industry and means gradual and unending improvement in efficiency and/or customer satisfaction. The philosophy is doing httle things better so as to achieve a long-term objective. 

The basic philosophy for the CCR plant layout is similar to that of the current Japanese BWR plants, including the provisions for maintainability and accessibility, etc. 

Numerous books detail the Toyota production philosophy JIT. See Shingo, Shigeo, Study of the Toyota Production System from the Industrial Engineering Viewpoint, Japanese Management Association, Tokyo, 1981 (Shingo has worked with Toyota and has an insider s viewpoint) and Wantuck, Kenneth A., Just in Time for America, The Forum, Milwaukee, 1989. 

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