Product Design Management in Japan - Books, Articles and Research Papers

Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry



Kim B. Clark, Prof Harvard Business School

Harvard Business Press, 1991 - Business & Economics - 409 pages
The result of six years of research conducted at the Harvard Business School on how different manufacturing firms around the world approach the development of new products. Its principal focus is on the impact of strategy, organization, and management on this critical component of business strategy. Concentrates on case studies from the world auto industry. Drawing on extensive research on twenty companies in Europe, North America, and Japan, the authors identify the strategies, practices, and capabilities that create superior performance in lead time, engineering productivity, and total product quality. The authors make the general applications of their findings clear to other industries. Managers will see how engineering needs to become more customer oriented, how integrated problem-solving activities pay off, how lead times can be cut without damaging side effects, and how strong project leaders championing products can promote innovative results.
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Engineered in Japan: Japanese Technology-management Practices - Book Information

Engineered in Japan: Japanese Technology-management Practices


Jeffrey K. Liker, John E. Ettlie, John Creighton Campbell

Oxford University Press, 1995 - Business & Economics - 404 pages
Engineered in Japan presents a unique and comprehensive examination of technology management in the most successful Japanese companies: unique in that all chapters go beyond superficial descriptions of stylized practices to look in depth at particular issues, often contradicting or qualifying the conventional wisdom; comprehensive in that it covers the entire technology life cycle from basic R&D, to development engineering, to manufacturing processes, to learning from the Japanese.
Each chapter is based on original research by noted scholars in the field, and identifies technology management practices that have become a major source of competitive advantage for highly successful Japanese companies. Engineered in Japan documents the best practices from such companies as Toyota, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Nippondenso, and discusses how these technology management practices can be usefully adopted in other cultural contexts.
Going beyond past observations, the authors all delve below the surface of Japanese management approaches. They look more closely than has been done before at how particular methods are applied, and they identify some new practices that have not yet been highlighted in books on Japanese methods. Presenting recent data that contradict some conventional thinking about U.S.-Japanese differences, they look at old techniques from a new perspective.
"U.S. managers can perhaps learn more from the process of creation in Japan and the organizational structures that support innovation," say the editors in their introduction, "than from the particular approaches, tools, and technologies created." A running theme throughout the book is that Japanese managers and engineers tend to think in terms of systems, focusing not just on the parts but on the connections between them. Engineered in Japan is must reading for technology managers and engineers, along with anyone interested in Japanese business, engineering, and management.

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=JGBCf1XEFSYC