I would like to start by pointing out that I strongly disagree with the statement above. In this essay, I am going to give evidence to support my view. I will define some major Japanese forms of operations management and discuss their advantages and disadvantages to organizations in order to give a brief idea about the Japanese forms of operations management. I will also examine the main reasons why Japanese operations management is appropriate to Western organizations along with some examples. Moreover, I will talk about drawbacks from applying Japanese operations management to Western organizations.
There are many forms of Japanese operations management, the first one I would like to discuss is lean production.
[...] Due to the fact that errors are costly for businesses, the next essential concept I will look at is total quality management (TQM). TQM is another Japanese idea, it is a managerial approach, which focuses on quality and aims to improve the effectiveness, flexibility, and competitiveness of the business. It is estimated that about one-third of all the effort of British business is wasted in correcting errors. TQM is a ‘medicine' for curing errors. TQM is often associated with the phase “Doing the right things right, first time”. [...]
[...] While workers are given more responsibility and encouraged to work in teams, the motivation of workers is improved significantly. From its origins in Japan, the JIT approach has spread widely throughout the West. For example, in Britain, Roll Royce has divided its car plant into 16 zones, each acting as a business within a business, responsible for purchasing, cost, quality and delivery. This approach is truly appropriate to Roll Royce, as it has halved the break-even level from 2800 cars per year to 1400. [...]
[...] Therefore, quality circles might not be appropriated to all Europe organizations. Before making a conclusion, I would like to explain the reasons for why Japanese forms of operations management might not be appropriate to Western organizations. The reason is that Japan and Western countries have different management cultures and they are not completely applying the same style of operations management. Many factors can affect the methods they use on operations management, such as, size and nature of organizations, consumer confident and changing in technology. [...]
[...] To make my conclusion of the essay, I would say that I strongly disagree that Japanese forms of operations management are inappropriate to Western organizations. Many of the Japanese forms of operations management are developed in a relation to Western organizations. For example, quality circles originated in Japan, although they can be traced to the influences of Drs. Deming and Juran, two American quality control and management experts who lectured extensively in Japan in the 1950s. Today, quality circles are increasingly accepted in Western world and have lost most of their Japanese flavor. [...]
[...] Amitco excels at the production of base vinyl, many of which closely resembles natural materials such as wood and marble. These are cleverly incorporated into complex designs to produce mosaic-effect floors, complete with borders and motifs. Because of the high quality of their designs and the flexibility, which they offer to their customers, they are able to charge a 30 percent price premium. A large part of Amitco's success in gaining a competitive edge in the market has been the result of changes made in factory. [...]
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