The Foundation of International Competitiveness of Japanese Automotive Industry

本研究项目的目的是澄清以下两点。1.展示“绩效管理”方法在案例研究中的可用性和有效性。2.通过对美国一家汽车厂和日本一家汽车厂的比较研究，了解日本汽车厂的竞争优势。我相信，这篇题为《美国汽车装配厂为车间组织改革而奋斗》的论文展示了‘绩效管理’方法的有效性。由于采用了这种方法，我们对所谓的“团队概念”所取得的成就有了更清楚的了解。这篇题为《国际竞争力的组织基础》的论文发现了日本汽车工厂的优势如下。(1)通过有组织的内部职业晋升培养的熟练生产工人的积累。(2)开发工程师、生产工程师、生产主管和工人之间组织协调顺畅，但这些优势与提高非典型工人利用率降低成本是矛盾的。寻求最优是最重要的管理决策。

The aim of this research project is to clarify the following two points. 1. Showing the availability and effectiveness of 'performance management' approach to the case study. 2. Getting the clear picture of the competitive advantages of Japanese automotive factories through the comparative research of an American car factory and those of Japan.1. The paper titled as' The Struggle of the American Car Assembly Factory for the Reform of the Workshop Organization' shows, I believe, the effectiveness of 'performance management' approach. Owing to this approach we have got the clearer picture of what the so-called 'team concept' has achieved.2. The paper titled as 'The Organizational Foundation of International Competitiveness' finds the advantages of Japanese car factories as follows. (1) The accumulation of skilled production workers trained through the well organized internal career promotion. (2) The smooth organizational coordination among development engineers, production engineers, production supervisors and workers.These advantages are, however, contradictory to the cost reduction by the increasing utilization of atypical workers. The search for the optimum is the most important management policy decision.