Hybrid Factories in the United States

Book excerpt: Since the early 1980s, Japanese firms have massively globalized their production operations and have shown superb competitive powers in global markets. This meant, however, they had to establish their unique Japanese-style management and production system locally, taking into account different conditions in countries that had not originally nurtured their unique system. In each case, firms found ways to balance applications and adaptations, resulting in a hybridization of their management and production systems. These experiences abroad dictated changes to the traditional system-in order to retain its basic logic and competitiveness, the essentials of the system needed to be redefined. Hybrid Factories in the United States elucidates the real advantages and weaknesses of the Japanese-style management and production system (JMPS) in the United States and elsewhere in the globalized economy. To assess the success of the "hybridization" dynamics of JMPS abroad, the editor and authors developed their own "hybrid-analysis" model, which has been used successfully around and globe for decades, and has been recognized as a major research framework for elucidating the study of international transferability of management and production systems in general. In very concrete ways and attentive to regional differences, the authors' hybrid-analysis methods identify which aspects of JMPS will inevitably change and which should be sustained. Tetsuji Kawamura and his team have provided a crucial and comprehensive resource not only for anyone interested in the Japanese story, but also for those concerned about the future of American manufacturing industries, for the investigation of Japanese transplants provides an invaluable perspective of the real dimensions of major management innovations of U.S. industries.