Malcolm Trevor - Just in Time Systems and Euro-Japanese Industrial Collaboration

Just-in-Time Systems and Euro Japanese Industrial Collaboration

Uwe Holl is a member of the executive board of the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft in Cologne, responsible for information, documentation and international relations.

Dr. Malcolm Trevor is Chairman of the Euro-Japanese Management Studies Association at the Policy Studies Institute London, Britain's largest independent research institute for the study of economic, industrial and social policies and the institutions thereof. He previously edited The Internationalization of Japanese Business (Campus/Westview 1987)

Uwe Holl, Malcolm Trevor, Editors

First published 1988 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
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Copyright 1988 in Frankfurt am Main by Campus Verlag

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Just in time systems and Euro-Japanese industrial collaboration.
1. Production control. 2. Inventory control.
I. Trevor, Malcolm, 1932- . II. Holl, Uwe.
TS 157 J87 1988 658.5 88-17100
CIP-Titelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek
Just-in-time systems and Euro-Japanese industrial
collaboration / Uwe Holl; Malcolm Trevor, ed. - Frankfurt am
Main: Campus Verlag; Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press,
1988
ISBN 3-593-33970-6 (Campus) kart.
ISBN 0-8133-0729-5 (Westview Press) kart.
NE: Holl, Uwe [Hrsg.]

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-00315-9 (hbk)

In taking up the two issues of just-in-time systems and Euro-Japanese industrial collaboration together, we are probably breaking new ground. Both are complex, forward-looking topics. Each has often been discussed separately, but I am not aware that both have previously been treated together under one heading.

At first glance they may seem to have nothing to do with one another, but do they not have something in common? The fact is that both have gained in importance in recent years, not only in scope but also in character. This increase in importance, which has occurred in different ways in different countries, is itself justification for the papers and discussion that follow. On the other hand, it is clear that the Anglo-German Foundation, which provided the initial impetus, had something more in mind when they proposed this composite question as a subject for dicussion.

Traditionally, for instance, competition and cooperation have been seen as alternatives. But the internationalisation of markets and production has increasingly made them complementary. Today enterprises that compete with one another are at the same time forced to cooperate and therefore they need to have a knowledge of the infrastructure of the firms in the different countries.

This process is increasingly being expedited by the introduction of just-in-time (JIT) systems, especially in Japan. The example of Toyota shows that the JIT concept is not just a means of rationalisation or of increasing productivity but something that extends beyond production and sales or marketing into all areas of decisionmaking.

In Japan, the Advisory Group on Economic Structural Adjustment for International Harmony submitted a report, widely known as the Maekawa Commission Report, to Prime Minister Nakasone in April 1986. Among other things, it stated that, "Industrial cooperation, including technology transfer and cooperation in third country markets, should be actively pursued. In particular, the establishment should be promoted of an institution from the private sector, whose goal should be the exchange of personnel within the framework of industrial cooperation."

A proposal of this type offers a means of increasing the number of managers with international experience. Such people are needed today to initiate and extend cooperation between enterprises in different countries. For the introduction and implementation of JIT systems, managers with ideas, and -- if possible -- both local and international experience are particulary necessary at all levels.

As far as the strengthening of Euro-Japanese industrial collaboration is concerned, one of the most important preconditions is that all the parties involved should learn to trust each other more and be more prepared to enter into long-term commitments. These would also appear to be the most important preconditions for the efficient implementation of JIT systems in the supplier-customer relationship, especially when this cuts across national boundaries - whether in terms of communication and the flow of information, the flow of materials and products, cost reduction, or the maximisation of marketing strategies.

Finally, both cooperation that extends beyond national boundaries and the implementation of JIT systems impinge on the relations between employers and unions. Companies become more vulnerable to strikes, and unions are in a position to pursue strikes with greater effect in proportion to the resources that they themselves commit. We are therefore grateful for the participation of British and German trade unionists in the following discussion.

I am personally convinced that a better understanding of the JIT systems that have been introduced in Japan, Britain, and Germany and of their implications will have a positive effect on broadening and deepening collaboration among the three countries -- perhaps not only in the industrial field but also in the field of trade. The composite nature of the questions posed by the title is therefore particularly farsighted, and I would like to thank the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society for taking them up and enabling us to hold a conference where we were able to discuss them from the perspective of practical experience.

This is not the first time in its relatively short existence that the Foundation, which has already sponsored many projects of real practical value to all those involved, has demonstrated its ability to see beyond the formal limitations of a topic and to look to the future through its policy of actively promoting discussion. The Foundation had indeed already taken up the triangular relationship between Japan, Britain, and Germany once before, when it sponsored a study (led by Dr. Malcolm Trevor) of the Japanese management development system in the Federal Republic of Germany and Great Britain. This study found, among other things, that Japanese managers were more task-oriented than their British and German colleagues and that the latter were by comparison more individualistic, specialised, and inflexible. And this may explain something about the relationship between Japan and Europe. Indeed one reason why JIT systems have been introduced both more widely and more efficiently in Japan than in Britain or Germany may lie in the specific features of Japanese managerial practice just alluded to. Thus the management development study of 1984-85 has interesting implications.