Japanese Attitude

[Wizzo]

Toyota and Honda are struggling to make a mark on the world of F1 because of the "Japanese corporate culture".

That is the claim of Mike Gascoyne, who has taken up the leading technical role at Dutch squad Spyker after falling out with Toyota in 2006.

After nearly six seasons on the grid, Toyota has in 2007 again failed to produce a front-running car, while the unmitigated catastrophe of Honda's campaign has been well documented.

Referring to the Japanese culture of bureaucracy and its unique perception of failure and shame, Gascoyne said, "It is undoubtedly part of the problem."

"They have each tried to do it the Japanese way, with lots of bureaucracy and control from Japan. And it is not working," he is quoted as saying by The Times.

Former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson backed Gascoyne's assessment by recalling that he thought officials in Japan were "cut off" from the reality of the F1 world when Honda supplied works engines to the now defunct team.

"They could not get to grips with the fact that things were going wrong," he recalled.

Gascoyne, however, said the teams' problems cannot be blamed on drivers.

The Briton said, "Those who do so simply do not understand the nature of the relationship between drivers and technicians."

[romephius]

Japanese business cultures certainly have some advantages......but the 1 MAJOR flaw in the way they do things is what most 'western' business types have got a great handle on.......and that is learning from your mistakes and moving forward...the Japanese seem to fail and quit......(to learn and then succeed would carry more honour in my opinion)....and that's the way a crazy Aussie calls it

Rom

[davewilson]

Good points there rom......British Leyland introduced Quality Circles to improve productivity towards the end of its life.
A brief guide to the process:

Business studies students often come across the concept of quality circles, or "Kaizen". What does this mean and what are the practicalities of using Kaizen in a quality management system?

We saw in our revision note on total quality management that a key principle of quality management is that of "continuous improvement".

Continuous improvement means just what it says. It is a philosohy that encourages all employees in an organisation so that they perform their tasks a little better every day. It starts from the assumption that business processes (e.g. production methods, purchasing, recruitment) can always be improved.

So why the use of the term Kaizen? Kaizen is a system for generating and implementing employee ideas developed in Japan. The Kaizen suggestion scheme helped many Japanese companies improve quality and productivity, which allowed them to offer better products at lower prices and therefore increase their market share.

Much of the success of Kaizen came about because the system encouraged many small-scale suggestions that were cheap and quick to implement. They also came from shop-floor employees - who had a detailed appreciation of the benefit each change might make to the process concerned. By implementing many small improvements, the overall effect was substantial.

One of the most publicised aspects of the Japanese approach to quality management is the idea of Quality Circles or Kaizen teams.

Professor John Oakland (a leading authority on quality) defines a Quality Circle/Kaizen Team as a group of workers who do similar work and who meet:

Voluntarily

Regularly

In normal working time

Under the leadership of their supervisor

To identify, analyse and solve "work-related" problems
To recommend solutions to management

Evidence of successful Quality Circles suggests that there are no formal rules about how to organise them. However, the following guidelines are often suggested:

The circle should not get too large - otherwise it becomes difficult for some circle team members to contribute effectively
   
Meetings should be help away from the work area - so that team members are free from distraction
   
The length and frequency of quality circle meetings will vary - but when a new circle is formed, it is advised to meet for about one hour, once per week. Thereafter, the nature of the quality problems to be solved should determine how often the circle needs to meet

Quality circles should make sure that each meeting has a clear agenda and objective
The circle should not be afraid to call on outside or expert help if needed.


I have a lot of paperwork on the subject,and to a certain point it worked well.However it did not take into consideration poor/faulty parts being fitted etc.
Everyone dressed the same from management to shop floor worker and everyone dined together.

[romephius]

In my company, every monday morning (or first day of the week) we all (8 of us) sit down, go through the current job list, focusing on the jobs that are taking a while to complete, we discuss sales and installations coming up, then it's onto safety.....at any point during the meeting any staff member can make suggestions to improve the way things are done within our company.....our model for getting things done has been replicated to 4 other businesses that have joined with us (my bosses bought into them as well), they have taken on our company name, we are considered the head office even though we are the second smallest group of people.  We have been ranked inside the top 10 dealers in the country and we have been ranked number 1 in the per capita countback......for us, good is not good enough......I never knew about the technique you talked about Stig, but it certainly sounds like what we do.....

Thanks for putting it all in perspective for me.

Rom