Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S. - Hardcover

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How can it be that Japanese "transplant" manufacturers are succeeding on U.S. soil, where American companies have failed? Beyond Mass Production provides the first inside look at the Japanese automobile, steel, and rubber companies that are transforming America's industrial heartland. It takes the reader inside the factories, unveiling the methods and techniques Japanese companies use to produce world-class products in America with American workers. The key, the authors argue, lies in the whole new model of organizing work and production that first emerged in Japan and is now being transferred to the United States. This new system harnesses the intellectual capabilities of all workers, from the Research and Development laboratory to the factory floor, as a source of innovation and productivity improvement. It results in a powerful integration of intellectual and physical labor that will forever transform the way work is done. Based upon more than five years of detailed research including field studies of dozens of factories, hundreds of personal interviews, and comprehensive surveys of industrial sectors, this book offers compelling evidence of the emergence and transfer of the new system in both the traditional and heavy industries and in the new industries of high-technology age. Beyond Mass Production offers a powerful and realistic theory of the new face of capitalism as a synthesis of intellectual and physical labor - a melding of innovation and production. In doing so, the authors go far beyond the existing theories of "post-industrialism", "post-fordism", and "flexibility". With a wealth of new data, maps, and straightforward examples of the kinds of changes taking place, thisbook provides an important new perspective for all those interested in Japanese business, industrial competitiveness, foreign direct investment, new work practices, industrial relations, and regional change.