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.

This book assesses the transferability of Japanese-style management and production systems to 81 factories in North America owned by Japanese companies. All of the book's investigations are based on an original methodology, "hybridization analysis", which quantifies the degree to which features of the Japanese system have been transplanted, using an elaborate checklist and scoring system. With its wealth of data, it should serve as a handy reference volume to anyone interested in the issue of international management and the impact of globalization upon production models.

The study on which Hybrid Factory is based focused on Japanese manufacturing firms that, beginning in the 1970s, and increasingly in the 1980s, vigorously embarked on overseas production in the United States. The book looks in particular at which management factors that provide strength to Japanese production systems can survive the transfer to the United States, or whether the radically different social and cultural environment makes such a transfer impossible.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) combined with subtractive methods such as machining, referred to as Hybrid-Manufacturing, has the ability to provide the discrete advantages belonging to each manufacturing process. Although metal AM parts are highly complex and customizable they often do not meet required dimensions and tolerances, and subtractive machining is required in order to post-process these parts by eliminating surface roughness. Subtractive machining alone is limited in regards to design, complexity and weight. Research shows that traditional shops have both interest in and excess capacity utilization to adopt AM to form an integrated hybrid-manufacturing supply chain. The hypothesis of this research is that, if strategically located, AM technology can integrate and streamline supply chains, connecting the AM supply chain with traditional machine shops and heat treatment centers for hybrid-manufacturing processes in both manufacturing and reverse logistics applications. In this research, the following investigations are presented, 1) Strategically locating AM hub centers based on existing machine shops in the United States in order to improve small and medium OEM accessibility to AM technology, 2) Strategically locating AM hub centers based upon both existing machine shops and heat treatment centers in the United States given that the majority of metal parts must go through some surface enhancement process, 3) Strategically locating AM repair technology based upon existing machine shops and aircraft engine maintenance and repair shops in order to utilize the benefits of AM to improve the reverse logistics process, and 4) Analyzing the competition and economic implications of traditional shops adopting AM technology to offer hybrid-manufacturing through a production economics approach. A series of facility location models and an economic duopoly model are developed in this research. The implications of integrating AM with traditional supply chain by strategically locating AM technology across the United States are derived with regards to geography, demand, fixed cost and transportation cost. Similarly, the economic model provides implications on being the first to adopt AM technology among competing firms with regards to product prices, quantities and profits. The results from each model are studied to support the widespread adoption of AM in the United States and to advance future applications of AM.

This book explores, in a systematic way, both conventional and unconventional material shaping processes with various modes of hybridization in relation to theory, modelling and industrial potential. The demand for high productivity and high accuracy in manufacturing is continuously increasing, based on improvement and optimization strategies. Hybridization of manufacturing processes will play a crucial role and will be of a key importance in achieving environmental and economical sustainability. Structured in three parts, Hybrid Manufacturing Processes summarizes the state-of-the art hybrid manufacturing processes based on available literature sources and production reports. The book begins by providing information on the physical fundamentals of the removal and non-removal processes in macro-, micro and nanoscales. It then follows with an overview of the possible ways of hybridization and the effects on the enhancement of process performance, before concluding with a summary of production outputs related to surface integrity, specifically with respect to difficult-to-machine materials. Considering the applications of different sources of hybridization including mechanical, thermal and chemical interactions or their combinations, this book will be of interest to a range of researchers and practicing engineers within the field of manufacturing.