-
2018.01.29
Change in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry. 2 What are the reasons for it?
In Japan, wages have started to rise with the improvement of national strength and it has used foreign low wage workers and has produced some parts abroad. However, sales declined extremely due to the collapse of the bubble economy, and significant cost reductions were required to maintain profit. Then many home electric product industries relocated their production bases abroad.
As a result, domestic work decreased, and technological outflows occurred.
In home electronic products, sales declined due to lack of adaptability to local needs. In addition, in digital home appliances such as flat-screen televisions, cost competitiveness declined due to delays to global procurement of parts in modular production.
In the automobile industry as well, in the results of the JD Power US car quality survey in recent years, evaluation of quality has been changing from function quality to design quality, and Japanese cars are not evaluated so high as before.
Furthermore, a sharp decrease in the labor force has occurred due to aging of the population and decreasing birthrate, the quality and quantity of workforce has been short, and the problem of job skill handover also becomes serious.
For example, there are many foreign workers who do not understand Japanese at the site of production and temporary employees who have little experience even if they are Japanese. There are also generation alternation due to mandatory retirement by age.
Among them, there are many companies that have stopped Kaizen or continuous improvement.
Question I wrote what are happening on the production sites. But I am sure there are a lot more happening. Please tell me your experiences.
-
2018.01.22
Change in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry 1 This is the first report in 2018. I am going start a new topic which is more concrete.
I am sorry to say but the manufacturing industry in Japan clearly has lost its competitiveness.
I will analyze the reasons in Chapter 1. And in Chapter 2, I will clarify the original strength of Japanese manufacturing industry. In Chapter 3, I would like to propose how to strengthen Japan’s manufacturing.
Chapter 1. Changes in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry
There was a time when Japan’s manufacturing industry was leading the world. At that time, Q, C, D (quality, cost, delivery time) was the basis of competitiveness, and outstanding Kaizen on the site played a big role.
And Japan had many hit products like Sony Walk-man or good quality compact cars which showed the Japanese technology.
However, nowadays, Japanese manufacturing industry has lost its momentum.
What happened?
Request. I will tell you my answer next time. Please think two or more answers to this question by that time.
I would also like to hear the opinions from you, and I hope discussion starts.