Japanese productivity and quality standards have fired the imagination of American managers, but until now there has been little explanation of how to do it -- how to apply Japanese methods at the actual operating level of U.S. manufacturing plants. This book shows you how, exposing otherwise well-informed westernized readers to a new world of management ideas. Author Richard J. Schonberger demonstrates that the Japanese formula for success is based on a number of specific, interrelated techniques -- stunning in their simplicity -- and he shows how these techniques can be put to work in American industries today. Here, in a clear, handbook format, are nine "lessons" for American manufacturers, introducing scores of techniques aimed at simplifying the overly-complex purchasing, inventory, assembly-fine, and quality-control processes of U.S. firms. At the heart of Japanese manufacturing success are two overlapping strategies: "just-in-time" production and "total quality control." Some American manufacturers already know a little about these methods, but Richard Schonberger provides the most comprehensive description of these techniques available: how they developed, how they all fit together, why they are so potent, and how they "snowball" -- unleashing a powerful chain reaction of productivity and quality control improvements each time more simplification is introduced. -- Publisher description.

This book presents a new approach to explaining the JIT/Lean system. JIT elements are classified into three categories: industrial engineering, Japanese management and Japanese workforce-related characteristics. JIT in Japan is shown as strongly impacted by the surrounding Japanese management setting to which it has borrowed a number of its techniques. Concerning the Japanese management, its features are shown as making up a consistent system. The system is revealed as consisting of management principles or strategies. For the first time, Japanese management is explained from inside, but not from the social and/or cultural point of view. Contrary to established academic management theories, survey findings show that Japanese management and JIT manifest their presence fairly well (i.e. they are prefigured) in the small and mid-size enterprises. Company executives whose companies are competing directly or indirectly against Japanese corporations; consulting firms interested in lean production methods; manufacturing company managers; management researchers, educators; and students make up the different kinds of audience that will profit the most from reading and exploring the book. Besides, it is a valued source of information for anyone interested in management in general, and in intercultural/international management in particular.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2011, held in Stavanger, Norway, in September 2011. The 66 revised and extended full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 124 papers presented at the conference. The papers are organized in 3 parts: production process, supply chain management, and strategy. They represent the breadth and complexity of topics in operations management, ranging from optimization and use of technology, management of organizations and networks, to sustainable production and globalization. The authors use a broad range of methodological approaches spanning from grounded theory and qualitative methods, via a broad set of statistical methods to modeling and simulation techniques.