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Benchmarking Best practices of Japan

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Quality wave began with Japan
• Japan can be considered as one of the best examples for
benchmarking continuous improvement practices.
The whole world has seen their rags to riches story. Within no
time the country has transformed its “Made in Japan” label from
cheap to the one signifying quality, reliability and
preference.

3. FICCI CE
Benchmarking Best practices of Japan
It will be interesting to study the best practices of their industries for
making continuous improvement under the following 4 sections:-
I. People
II. Work style
III. Product Quality
IV. Customers

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I. People

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Employee selection based on potential
Selection of personnel is the most important phase for quality &
continuous improvement. Screening of people is done on 2
principle criteria:
1. Does the person really want to work for the organization.
2. What is the applicants potential.

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Importance of the individual
Japanese organizations have true & genuine concern for people. This
is reflected in most of their organizations and is the first & foremost
objective for achieving continuous improvement. Besides healthy
bonus, the perks include housing for unmarried, home loans for newly
weds, promise of upward mobility within the company, access to
employee cafeteria and holiday trips.

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Lifetime employment
Once accepted for employment, the Japanese workers are
guaranteed employment for lifetime with the company. The
employees do not consider leaving an organization even if he
could get a substantially better position & salary. This gives the
organization the advantage of stable & experienced workforce.

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Company loyalty
Many mistakenly believe that company loyalty is achieved by much
publicized Japanese exercises, motto repetition or vision
statements. It goes much deeper & broader. It consists of a working
relationship in which workers recognize that the company is
concerned not only about customers, products, bottom-line & share
holders but also about them.

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II. Work Style

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Top management involved in quality
The top executives of all Japanese firms wear the same uniform
as their workers. The top management is personally involved in
all the areas of quality improvement. Many times the top
management is on the shop floor, they meet their workers,
observe what they are doing & converse and resolve their
problems.

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Job rotation
In Japan workers are rotated in different jobs irrespective of their
qualifications. This is beneficial both for the management & the employees.
The employees tend to view all the problems with a fresh perspective and do
not have a biased attitude. This also relieves monotony and instills fresh
enthusiasm in the employees which is regarded as an important motivating
factor to obtain continuous good performance.

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Very important to have an inquiring mind
The Japanese organizations inculcate in their employees the
quality of an inquiring mind. They believe that unless you have
an inquiring mind, continuous improvement is not possible.
Thinking about new ideas in most of the organizations is
thoroughly encouraged.

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Attitude to Excel under challenge
Japan with its limited space & scarcity of resources has been able to make
the most of whatever it has. Space, people and other natural resources in
Japan are so limited that all Japanese workers have been taught to exploit
them with great care & diligence. This colors the Japanese workers efforts
to excel with whatever little they have - A classical example of the positive
influence of adversity.

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Commitment to training
Formal training is a way of life in Japan & Japanese industry
provides resources for this vital area to ensure that workers know
what they are doing. The company believes that as you invest
more & more in training, the employees become more & more
living assets who can be shifted to new responsibilities & higher
positions.

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Financial incentive to be innovative
The organizations in Japan give adequate financial incentive for
employees who come up with innovative ideas for improving
quality & productivity.

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Consensus management
Japanese managers do not make unilateral decisions effecting
production, quality and improvements. An idea or concept is aired for
comment by workers & middle management and their observations &
suggestions are seriously considered by the top management. The
consensus style of management has a great advantage because if
many participants are allowed to comment on an idea or a policy
change, there will be least resistance when it is actually implemented.

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Long term management outlook
Most of the decisions taken by the Japanese organizations are
long term in nature. Their investments aim for growth over a
long period of time.

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Competitive spirit
Competition in Japan is taken as an opportunity to improve.
More and more Japanese companies benchmark their products
with the global leaders in quality.

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III. Product Quality

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Zero defect policy
Zero defect is a well understood & practiced quality standard of
Japanese industry. At a Sony factory one could see a color T.V
that had been operating 8 hrs a day for over 37,000 operating
hrs with no adjustments or repairs, and the T.V was still
producing an acceptable picture. The Industry standard is
10,000 hrs.

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Quality supersedes
production
In almost all the Japanese organizations quality supersedes
production. In Toyota plants every workstation has a line stop
button. Each worker is empowered to stop the production line if
something goes wrong and they do not fear reprisal for
interrupting the production line.

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Supplier quality
Poor quality work is not accepted from any supplier and
definitely means an end of relationship with the organization.
The organizations also conducts training program for their
suppliers and takes interest in continuously improving their
products & services as well. The supplier is considered to be an
integral part of the organization.

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Just in Time inventory
Japanese dedication to quality has given them the additional
advantage of low inventory which considerably reduces capital
investment in materials, storage space, material handling
equipment and labor. Toyota claims of a 2 hour inventory. The
Sony factory in Ichnomiya claims that the supplier’s truck rolls in
every 90 minutes to keep up with the production rate of Trinitron
color TV.

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Effective fool proofing
In most of the Japanese industries effective fool proofing
principles are followed. Most of the production line have a
censor which halts the machine whenever the machine begins
manufacturing parts which are outside the tolerance limits and
are defective.

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Development of suppliers
Japanese industry enjoys high vendor quality because many
suppliers are formal employees who having learnt the parent
company’s systems of quality have set their own shops. Since they
understand the requirements of parent company’s in toto, they can
provide quality components with little inspection & few rejects. Infact
many industries in Japan finance such suppliers with venture capital.
Toyota for e.g.. has grown 90% of its suppliers with such venture
capital.

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IV.
Customers

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Global reach
Japanese had a very clear vision of developing products for the
global market from the very beginning. They were quick in
identifying the disadvantages of some of the important products
manufactured globally. They made fast improvements on those
products and offered to customers at the most affordable price.
Electronics and Automobiles are live examples.

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Attention to detail
The customer to most of the Japanese, is a human face with
likes & dislikes and not a faceless, formless impersonal market.
Customers, whether their employees, their suppliers or ultimate
consumers are of constant concern to the Japanese.

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Attention to detail
What are there tastes? How can we innovate to satisfy them
better? How can we assure that our product is going to give trouble
free service far beyond the warranty period? How can we be
responsive to the customer in the event of a breakdown?
From design & production to packaging & delivery the Japanese
pay lot of attention to details for customer satisfaction.

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Market research
Most of the organizations in Japan have risen to eminence because of
excellent market research - determining what consumers want and giving it to
them. The U.S auto manufacturers failed to perceive that the 1972 fuel crisis
would have a real impact on the customers and they continued to manufacture
large fuel inefficient cars. The Japanese saw the need and came out with
small fuel efficient cars which met with great success. The same thing was
also done for the Indian market.

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