| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,710,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This study project aims to investigate international transferability of the Toyota Production System abroad, based on the field research on located in foreign countries. Toyota Motor committed foreign investments and production for 20 years. The research questions are as follows: To identify any evolution of the transfer of the production system since then and to identify easy elements and difficult elements to transfer. I decided to make field research by focusing on the factories in Europe this time. I visited Toyota Motor's plants in Britain, Czech Republic, and Turkey, as well as the Regional Headquarters in Brussels in 2007. And, a French factory and the Regional Headquarters in Brussels were visited next year. I also visited a Spanish factory of Nissan Motor Co. and a Dutch factory of Mitsubishi Motors (NedCar)..
. A tentative conclusion concerning transferability of the Toyota Production System through the field study is as follows. Toyota Motor's European plants have implemented the Toyota Production System successfully. It has introduced so-called two pillars of the System (JIT and JIDOKA) commonly. The technical aspects of the system are easier to transfer. On the other side, production worker's skill formation is not easy to transfer. Time and the experience are necessary for its transfer. However, the execution of the performance evaluation in wage system was implemented commonly at four factories. Toyota's factories in Europe have introduced the performance evaluation to the production worker, although Toyota was not able to implement it in North America. I can point out common practices at each factory about the work organization and the education and training. I noticed that the skill formation at the European plants did not reach at the same level as the factory in Japan and it is at an initial or middle stage. I do not need to change this conclusion at present, though the accurate survey is required.
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