A Comparative Study of Production & Labor Systems between Japanese and German Machinery Equipment Industry

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In 1993, our survey concerning product development management has been carried on extensively in three machinery assembly industries, namely automobile, electronics and machine tool. As for the automobile industry, we've come across some difficulties to perceive the entire feature of its product development process because its sphere is very extensive and that the division of labor is very complex there. But due to the growth of demands from domestic market, more and more new cars have been developed and this growing volume of development has brought about striking advancement of development technology, especially software technique for CAD/CAM.Consequently, a new style network organization of product development has emerged and developed by virtue of computer network. This system integrates firmly the whole sphere from the top, namely car makers, to the bottom, namely subcontractors supporting the development process ; we perceived this system as "product development network", and we … More studied its role to play in raising up the efficiency of the development and the tendency of its evolution. This evolution has been detected less evidently in electronics and machine tool industries in comparison with automobile industry ; we could identify, however, a certain trait of similar evolution wherever products were various. In "product development network" of automobile and electronics industries, specific traits to notice are as follows : product development of final assemblers has been diversified and more and more efficiency is required for it ; development organization and functions of component suppliers have been intensified ; more and more supporting activities such as die & mold manufacturing of prototype preparation are transferred to subcontractors. According to the interviews we had, this decentralized type of product development system accelerated communication and corporation in development process and enriched its contents. The burst of "bubble" economy deviated moderately this new tendency to shrinking reorganization ; the basic outline, however, is expected to be transferred to product development activities of the coming generation. Less