1、Japanese product development strategiesAn executive summaryfor managers andJapanese product developmentexecutives can be foundstrategiesat the end of this articleLaurence JacobsProfessor of Marketing, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii,USAPaul HerbigProfessor of Marketing, Graduate School
2、of International Trade andBusiness Administration, Texas AM International University, Laredo,Texas, USAHistorical perspective of Japanese product developmentPost-war JapaneseThe post-war Japanese competitive strategy evolved from one of low wagescompetitive strategy(1945-1950s; labor-intensive indus
3、tries such as textiles), to capital-intensivescale economies as rising wage rates eroded the advantage of low labor rates(1960searly 1970s; market penetration and automation-steel, shipbuilding,autos, consumer electronics), to focussed production (late 1970s and 1980s;high-volume segments and establ
4、ishing a production facility that minimizedcomplexity), to flexible production (producing a range of products on thesame production line using just-in-time inventory techniques to provide bothlower cost and greater variety in a shorter time and with a shorter life cycle)(Musselwhite, 1990). This was
5、 done by absorbing foreign technologies andmaking continuous improvements while maintaining quality consciousness(Best, 1990).Birth of Japanese laborTaiichi Ohno, Chief Engineer at Toyota during the 1950s, learned manypolicyvaluable lessons from Detroit which would later be instrumental in the wayth
6、e Japanese economy prospered. He found a way to reduce the timerequired to change dies from a day to three minutes. He discovered that itcost less to make small batches, since making small batches eliminated thecarrying costs of huge inventories required by mass production techniques.Making only a f
7、ew parts before assembling them caused mistakes to showup almost immediately. This caused Ohno to concentrate on quality toeliminate the waste of large numbers of defective parts. To make this systemwork, Ohno needed both an extremely skilled and a highly motivated work-force. As a result of a post-
8、war strike, an agreement was worked out betweenthe company and the union: employees were guaranteed lifetimeemployment and their pay would be steeply graded by seniority rather thanby specific job function and was to be tied to company profitability throughbonus payments. This essentially made the e
9、mployees members of theToyota family, with rights of access to Toyota facilities (housing, recreation,clubs, etc.). The employees also agreed to be flexible in work assignmentsand to initiate improvements rather than merely respond to problems. Hence,the Japanese labor policy was born (Womack et al.
10、, 1990). Technology-intensiveJapanese companies tend to market technology-intensive products. First,productsRD focusses on continual incremental improvement, which naturallyextends product technology. This can push the most mundane products(automobiles, watches), over time, into the arena of high te
11、chnology.Second, new technologies provide the best possibilities for serving marketniches and fragmenting larger, more homogeneous markets (Pine, 1993).Japanese firms emphasize meeting consumers needs with good quality andreliable products at competitive prices. Japanese companies appear moreadept a
12、t exploiting strategic windows-opportunities created by new marketsegments, changes in technology, or new distribution channels. 132JOURNAL OF BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 2 1998, pp. 132-154 MCBUNIVERSITYPRESS, 0885-8624Factors in the Japanese product development strategyThe eight fac
13、tors discussed in this section contributed to Japan s speedy andflexible post-war development process.Top management as a catalystStrategic role of topTop management plays a key strategic role in new product development inmanagementthe typical Japanese company. Management provides the initial kickof
14、f tothe development process by signaling a broad strategic direction or goal forthe company. This is done by constantly monitoring the externalenvironment (competitive threats and market opportunities) and evaluatingcompany strengths and weaknesses. The Japanese firm continuously scansthe globe for
15、new ideas and is able to assess with more foresight thetechnologies that have a large future growth and diffusion potential. Topmanagement rarely hands down a clearcut new product concept of a specificwork plan. Rather it intentionally leaves considerable room for discretionand local autonomy to tho
16、se in charge of the development project. A certaindegree of built-in ambiguity is considered healthy, especially in the earlystages of development of the product or technology. Management alsoimplants a certain degree of tension within the project team. This tension, ifmanaged properly, helps cultiv
17、ate a must-do attitude and a sense of cohesionamong members of the crisis-solving team. A Japanese company comes incontact with an appropriate series of generic technologies through in-houseresearch and a considerable capacity to integrate the latest scientificdevelopments. Such contact becomes poss
18、ible through high-levelcollaboration with university laboratories, public and private research andinformation organizations, and other companies (Giget, 1988). Outsideresearch is analyzed to provide material for directing in-house appliedresearch programs. All this is guided subtly by top management
19、.Self-organizing project teamsChange agents for theA new product development team, consisting of members with diverseorganizationbackgrounds and temperaments, is hand picked by top management and isgiven a free hand to create something new. Members of this team often risktheir reputation and sometim
20、es their career to carry out their role as changeagents for the organization at large. To become self-organizing, a groupneeds to be completely autonomous; it must come up with its ownchallenging goals and then try to keep elevating those goals. It cannot becontent with incremental improvements alon
21、e, being in constant pursuit of aquantum leap, and it is usually composed of members of diverse functionalspecialization so that the whole becomes much more than the sum of itsparts. Cross-fertilization then occurs. Ambiguity is tolerated. Sharing ofinformation is encouraged. Decision making is inte
22、ntionally delayed toextract as much up-to-date information as possible from the marketplace andtechnical communities. Sharing of responsibilities is accepted by all groupmembers. For all of the advantages that this group consensus provides, italso has some potential drawbacks. For example, collectiv
23、e thought oftenleads to isolation and litism (as is the case for Japan and the Japanesepeople themselves). However, in the Japanese 6view of the team andteamwork, workers are encouraged to have multiple skills and are valuedand paid for their versatility (the number of different roles they can playw
24、ithin the team). This allows teams to assume major responsibilities and tosolve problems spontaneously as they arise rather than asking the engineersfor a new blueprint and the staff for new work procedures. The work is morevaried, flexible, and challenging and may make levels of supervisionJOURNAL
25、OF BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 2 1998133superfluous. The Japanese search for goal congruence is continuous andnever ends until consensus is reached. Overlapping development phasesInnovation generationThe concept of division of labor is not well adopted in Japan; rather,processredundan
26、cy (excess information sharing), and shared division of labor arethe norms with every phase of innovation generation loosely connected andoverlapping, expanding and contracting as necessary. The uniquecharacteristic of Japanese enterprise is that, rather than dividing each phaseand operating remotel
27、y, every phase is made to overlap in a process thatmoves through the joint efforts of the participants. As a result, the timerequired to develop an idea is halved in many projects. However,information redundancy can nurture groupthink as well a hesitancy to submitcreative ideas. The Japanese innovat
28、ion generation process has an unusuallyhigh cost associated with it in terms of the generation of problems andsolutions, high degree of social interaction (work is the reason for existenceand family often gets shortchanged), human exhaustion and overwork(karoshi), mental exhaustion, and burnout (Non
29、aka, 1990).Overlap between R+DConsiderable overlap exists in the phases of the new product developmentand marketingprocess in Japan. This overlap between RD and marketing enhances sharedresponsibility and cooperation, stimulates involvement and commitment,sharpens a problem-solving focus, encourages
30、 initiative taking, developsdiversified skills, and heightens sensitivity to market conditions. Phasemanagement is holistic and overlapping rather than analytical andsequential. The search for information and experimenting at all points delaysuntil the last moment the narrowing of options. In an ove
31、rlapping program,many groups are working on a project at the same time. The overlappingapproach has both merits and faults. The obvious merits include:?faster development;?increased flexibility; and?information sharing.This approach also helps foster the more strategic view of a generalist,enhances
32、shared responsibility and cooperation, stimulates involvement andcommitment, sharpens a problem-solving orientation, encourages initiativetaking, develops diversified skills, creates grounds for peer recognition, andincreases the sensitivity of everyone involved to changes in marketconditions. On th
33、e other hand, the burden of managing the process increasesexponentially. By its nature, the overlapping approach amplifies ambiguity,tension, and conflict within the group. The burden to coordinate the intakeand dissemination of information also increases, as does management sresponsibility to carry
34、 out ad hoc and intensive on-the-job training(Rosenberg, 1986). As a result, the division of labor often becomesineffective.MultilearningDevotion to learningAn almost fanatical devotion to learning occurs in a Japanese institution, bothwithin organizational membership and among outside members of th
35、enetwork. Learning, for the typical Japanese person, is something that takesplace continuously in a highly adaptive and interactive manner. Thesecontinuous interactions with outside information sources allow workers torespond rapidly to changing market preferences. The constant encouragementto acqui
36、re diversified knowledge and skills helps create a versatile team134JOURNAL OF BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 2 1998capable of solving a wide array of problems in a relatively short period oftime. Learning is institutionalized by the Japanese practice of job rotation. Subtle controlEmpha
37、sis is on Subtle control is exercised by management to prevent looseness, ambiguity,self-controltension, or conflict from getting out of control. The emphasis is on self-control and on peer pressure. Management selects the right people for theteam, constantly monitoring the balance and adding or del
38、eting specificmembers if deemed necessary. An open and visible working environmentrequires one to think about what is best for the group at large. Managementalso encourages team members to extract as much information from the fieldand to share the information with other team members. The Japaneseeva
39、luation system, which is based on group rather than individualperformance, encourages the formation of a self-organizing team, fostersmultilearning among team members, and builds trust and cohesion, and peerpressure. Management establishes overriding values shared by everyone inthe organization. Org
40、anizational transfer of learningTechnology and knowledge are transferred to other divisions or subsequentprojects and become institutionalized over time. Personnel are rotated aswell. Successful, highly visible projects will be studied and copied by othersin the company. Because of the Japanese emph
41、asis on lifelong learning andthe job rotation which exists in most every large Japanese corporation, theorganizational transfer of learning to other individuals or to entire othergroups can be accomplished easily, quickly, and cooperatively.Japanese teamworkThree potential types ofAccording to Peter
42、 Drucker (1993), three potential types of teams exist. Oneteams existis the baseball or cricket team, in which all players play on the team but theydo not play together as a team. Each team member has a fixed position. Thisversion of a team has great strengths, specific tasks, measurableperformance,
43、 and players that are well trained for the specific position theplayer has. This is excellent for repetitive tasks and for work in which therules are well known. It is also the model on which modern mass productionwas organized. As team members get information from the situation, eachreceives inform
44、ation appropriate to his or her task. Traditionally, most workin large American companies was organized in this way. The second type of team is analogous to a soccer team or the symphonyorchestra, all with fixed positions which work as a team. This requires aconductor or coach and a score as well as
45、 endless rehearsals. This type ofteam has great flexibility if the score is clear and the team is well lead.Information comes largely from the coach or conductor. This is the typicalJapanese model of work.The third type of team is the doubles tennis team, or executive committee.This type of team is
46、small and flexible with the players rapidly adjusting toeach other. This team only functions well when the members adjust to thestrengths and weaknesses of other player(s). This is the strongest team of allthree types. The performance of the team is greater than the sum of theindividual team members
47、. This version of the team, however, requiresenormous self-discipline and time together to work well. Information comeslargely from each player or team member. This is the team most suitable forthe information age of the twenty-first century.JOURNAL OF BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 2 19
48、98135Lean productionTechniques of lean designLean production is a comprehensive information system that makes itpossible for everyone in the plant to respond quickly to problems and tounderstand the plant s overall situation. The shusa system pioneered byToyota (or LPL large project leader as it is
49、called at Honda) is one suchexample. Shusa is the boss, the leader of the team, whose job it is to designand engineer a new product and to get it fully into production. The shusaassembles a small team, which is assigned to the development project forlife. Techniques of lean design include leadership, the shusa, teamwork,communication (resolving critical design tradeoffs at the beginning), andsimultaneous development. Product development Japanese styleProduct development Japanese style is the dynamic and continuous processof adaptation to changes in the environment. The key elements o
