Empirical Study on Unit-Component Suppliers in Japanese Electronics Industry

(1)在日本的消费电子和办公自动化行业中，作为最终产品的关键要素的单元组件，在大多数情况下是由供应商提供的，而不是由最终生产商制造的。而在欧洲和美国，由于难以在当地采购，日本的移植物一方面被迫从日本进口，或者在东南亚自己的移植物，另一方面，在自己的工厂组装。(2)在选择了消费电子和办公自动化行业的典型制造商之后，我们访问了工厂，并根据预先准备的调查问卷对经理们进行了访谈。(3)实证研究发现，当供应商在日本发展业务时，他们会交换技术…由于与客户保持了长期稳定的关系，以非常亲密的方式与客户提供了更多的传统信息。客户和供应商之间的这种信息交换不应被单方面视为从客户向供应商转让技术。供应商在这一合作中的贡献值得注意，供应商甚至在特定领域掌握了技术主动；如果没有供应商的这种贡献，大公司就不可能实现一些主要产品的开发，如录像机或复印机。在没有这种密切和稳定合作的欧洲或美国，例如录像机或复印机的开发就无法完成。在日本，我们可以注意到建立在供应商协会基础上的信息网络的演变，旨在鼓励分包商的制造开发能力。(4)日元的高升值使得从日本出口单元部件变得越来越困难，并加速了单元部件供应商的设施向已经建立最终组装厂的国家转移。当向欧洲或美国的转移看起来不现实时，亚洲国家取而代之的是它们。在欧洲和美国的大多数情况下，日本电视机制造商没有成功地指导或开发当地供应商，因此没有实现由当地供应商采购单元组件。最近，欧盟国家正在与日本公司和工信部合作进行供应商开发项目，但这一目标的实现还需要很长的时间。较少

(1) In Japanese consumer-electronics and office-automation industries, unit-components which are key elements of final products, are provided by suppliers for the majority of cases, not manufactured by final producers. Whereas in Europe and USA,due to difficulties to procure them locally, Japanese transplants are forced, on one hand, to import them from Japan or their own transplants in South-East Asia or, on the other hand, to assemble them in their own factories. This study focuses on the above-mentioned contrast in unit-components procurement and tries to clarify the Japanese characteristics and to examine the possibilities to develop and to support such a kind of suppliers in Europe or USA.(2) After selecting typical manufacturers in consumer-electronics and office-automation industries, we visited factories and interviewed managers following the questionnaire previously prepared.(3) We found empirically that, when the suppliers are growing the business in Japan, they exchange tech … More nical information with their customers in a very intimate manner due to long and stable relationship kept with their customers. This exchange of information between customers and suppliers should not be regarded unilaterally as a transfer of technology from customer to suppliers. The contribution of suppliers in this cooperation should be noticed and suppliers even take the technical initiative in particular fields ; without this contribution from suppliers, large firms could not have achieved the development of some of major products such as VTR or photocopier. In Europe or USA where this intimate and stable cooperation is absent, the development of VTR or photocopier, for example, could not be completed. We can note in Japan the evolution of information networks established on the supplier-association basis aiming to encourage manufacturing-development capabilities of subcontractors.(4) High appreciation of Yen makes more and more difficult to export unit-components from Japan and accelerates the transfer of facilities of unit-component suppliers to the countries where the final assembly plants are already established. When the transfer to Europe or USA appeared not realistic, Asian countries substituted them as the beneficiaries. Procurement of unit-components by local suppliers has not been fulfillled for the majority of cases in Europe and USA where Japanese set makers have not successfully instructed nor developed local suppliers. Recently, EU countries are carrying on supplier development project in cooperation with Japanese firms and MITI ; it still takes long time to fulfilll the objective. Less