Applying the Toyota Production System Overseas

Abstract

Japan’s share of the automobile market increases each year. In the American market, Japanese subcompact cars have become more accepted than American cars by consumers. This is because of the superiority in terms of quality and price of Japanese cars. Recently, there has been a strong interest in transferring the Japanese production control system abroad shown among both foreign and Japanese companies. Is such a transfer possible? Environmental conditions among the companies are so different that the possibility of a transfer seems impossible. On the contrary, the Japanese system is already being transferred. American motor companies have been trying to achieve quality improvement and cost reduction through applying the Japanese production system to their manufacturing processes. Japanese companies have been asked to voluntarily restrict automobile exports in order to deal with the trade imbalance. In the meantime, producing units in the U.S. is becoming very profitable due to the appreciation of the yen.