The Myth of Japanese Efficiency: The World Car Industry in a Globalizing AgeCombining case studies with accessible but rigorous production models and historical background, this provocative book challenges accepted views on Japanese production methods in the world car industry. The book argues that the 'lean and flexible' production model popularly associated with Toyota MC is a myth, but one which sheds light on cultural responses to the attendant stresses of globalization. To illustrate this, Dan Coffey provides individual studies of process flexibility, labour productivity and the re-organization of work in the global car industry. Wider evaluations of Japanese impacts on the global economy and a resurgent Western capitalism are then made, progressing the case for a fundamental re-assessment of the narratives informing popular accounts of Japan's manufacturing success. Beginning with the fictionalization of history and propagation of empirical counterfactuals and finishing with observations on the wider impact of the 'lean and flexible' approach, the bold and controversial conclusion reacheld by the author is that what is at stake is our understanding of the form and meaning of 'production fantasy'. The Myth of Japanese Efficiency casts a familiar debate in an unfamiliar light. It will strongly appeal to management and business strategy academics, political economists and industrial sociologists interested in the debate on Fordist versus 'post-Fordist' production methods/'lean and flexible' manufacture and Japanese post-war success in the world market for manufactured goods. Human resource management specialists interested in best production practice will also find much to interest them within this book. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 37
... recent literature , the transition point in North America is then dated to the 1970s , and ascribed to Japan's competitive pres- sure and example ( ibid .: 51–3 ) . The number of Western texts to make similar claims is legion : Toyota ...
... recently established wisdoms . In a more recent essay on the rise and fall of Japan as a model of ' progressive ' capital- ism , Coates ( 2006 ) describes the emergence of a very large body of Western academic and policy literature ...
... recent developments in the organization of production is obviously an ' account ' with material existence : it ... recent collection on the car as an object in material culture , could observe as recently ( at the time of writing ) as ...
Contents
Introducing the myth of Japanese efficiency | 1 |
a myth encountered | 15 |
the BMWRover Group controversy | 44 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown