Download or read book The Japanese Automotive Industry written by Robert Cole and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies reflected on the deteriorating position of the domestic auto industry in the fall of 1980, and the strong competitive threat being posed by the Japanese automakers, we were struck by the extraordinary low quality of the public discussion of these critical issues. The national importance of the issues seemed only matched by the superficiality of the analyses being offered. The tendency to think in terms of scapegoats was particularly evident. The Japanese as the basic cause of our problems has been a particularly notable theme. To be sure, cooperation with the Japanese in formulating a rational overall trade policy may be an important part of the solution. It has also been fashionable to blame it all on American auto industry management for not concentrating on the production of small cars when "everyone knew" that was the thing to do. Alternatively, government meddling was blamed for all our problems. Clearly, the complex problem we faced required more penetrating analyses. It seemed therefore, that the time was ripe for a public seminar which moved beyond the rhetoric of the moment and probed some of the deeper causes of our problems and possible directions for future policy. In holding the January 1981 auto conference, the Center took it as their task to begin addressing the critical issues facing the industry, with particular, but not exclusive, attention to examining the role of the Japanese auto industry. They had in mind not to simply conduct a rational discussion of the trade issue but to probe the sources of Japanese competitive strength, especially those features whose study might profit them. In these proceedings, they bring those discussions to a wider audience. Question and answer sessions at the conference were necessarily short and a few speakers delivered abbreviated remarks; this volume restores a number of omissions, and provides additional answers to some pertinent questions put by the audience. The Center hopes to encourage the serious problem-solving these complex issues demand. Far too much time has been spent trying to fix the blame. [intro]

Download or read book Wrecked written by Joshua Murray and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2019-06-13 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical-sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions. Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization. Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.

Download or read book Motor Vehicle Supply Chain written by Bill Canis and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011-08 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The March 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami devastated the northeast coast of Japan. The resulting destruction of several nuclear reactors in the region cut off electricity for homes and industry. Manufacturing facilities which are integral to the global motor vehicle supply chain were also affected. Some of these factories that were forced to close provided parts and chemicals not easily available elsewhere. Contents of this report: Intro.; Overview of the Motor Vehicle Industry; The U.S. Motor Vehicle Supply Chain; High Tech. Components Change Manufacturing Dynamics; Events in Japan Affect U.S. Motor Vehicle Manufacturing and Retailing; What is the Near-Term Impact in the U.S.? Ill. A print on demand report.

Download or read book The Japanese Challenge to U S Industry written by Jack Baranson and published by Lexington, Mass. : Lexington Books. This book was released on 1981 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Comeback written by Paul Ingrassia and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors. Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

Download or read book Japan Challenges America written by Harrison M Holland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-02-27 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the US-Japan alliance in jeopardy, former diplomat Harrison Holland argues that both sides must take bold steps to avert a catastrophe that could destabilize economic, political and security conditions in Asia. Taking advantage of his insider's perceptions, the author illuminates those aspects of life in Japan that influence behaviour, shape policy and affect public opinion in an inwardly directed society. Holland evaluates the obstacles to better economic relations; the security dilemmas facing Japan; and the rigid Japanese political structure, which has been slow to adapt to the surge of modern technology, the demands of rapid international change, and the internal and external calls for a more responsible Japanese role in world affairs. Can the alliance survive the present turmoil? Despite the daunting obstacles, the author concludes that solutions must and will be found.

Download or read book High Voltage written by Jim Motavalli and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A behind-the-scenes look at the robustly competitive race to dominate the market for electric cars, the larger-than-life moguls behind them, and the changes that are transforming the auto industry In the 1980s, it was unimaginable that the home computer would become as common and easy to use as a toaster. Today, plug-in charging stations and smart grids seem like something still far off in the future. But by 2020, the auto industry will look very different from today's field of troubled auto giants. The combination of technological breakthroughs and charging networks driven by global warming and peak oil makes it clear that revolutionary change in the auto industry is happening right now. In High Voltage, Jim Motavalli captures this period of unprecedented change, documenting the evolution from internal combustion engines to electric power. Driven by the auto world's ambitious and sometimes outlandish personalities, the book chronicles the race to dominate the market, focusing on big players like Tesla and Fisker, as well as a tiny start-up and a battery supplier. Flashing forward to the changes we'll see in the coming years, High Voltage shows a not-so-distant future where we will live on a smart grid, our cars "fueling," that is, charging, while we shop or sleep. The ramifications of these changes will be on a grander scale than most of us ever imagined—altering foreign policy, reducing trade deficits, and perhaps even ending global warming.

Download or read book American Power the New World Order and the Japanese Challenge written by W. Nester and published by Springer. This book was released on 1992-12-18 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes US-Japan relations amidst the changing nature of power and international relations. Chapters explore the relative successes and shortcomings of American liberalism and Japanese Neomercantilism, the bilateral trade duels over finance, high technology, agriculture, and other industries, and the costs and benefits of foreign investment and military spending. The book concludes with suggestions for a systemic and radical overhaul of American policies toward itself, the global economy, and Japan.

Download or read book Theory Z written by William G. Ouchi and published by Avon Books. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Japan and the Global Automotive Industry written by Koichi Shimokawa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-03 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese automotive industry enjoyed spectacular success in the 1980s. This was largely due to the so-called 'Lean Production System' - the combination of an efficient production system, an effective supplier system, and a product development system. In the 1990s the industry fell on hard times because of the Japanese asset price bubble and extreme currency appreciation. In this book, eminent industry specialist Koichi Shimokawa draws on his thirty years of research and fieldwork with Japanese and American firms, to show how the Japanese automotive industry has managed to recover from this difficult period. He shows how firms like Toyota were able to transfer Japanese systems to overseas plants and how they have changed in order to compete in increasingly globalized markets. In addition, the book also addresses the two major challenges to the current industry model: the rise of China and the environmental and energy supply situation.

Download or read book Maximizing U S Interests in Science and Technology Relations with Japan written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-08-23 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Innovation Economic Development and Intellectual Property in India and China written by Kung-Chung Liu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book analyses intellectual property codification and innovation governance in the development of six key industries in India and China. These industries are reflective of the innovation and economic development of the two economies, or of vital importance to them: the IT Industry; the film industry; the pharmaceutical industry; plant varieties and food security; the automobile industry; and peer production and the sharing economy. The analysis extends beyond the domain of IP law, and includes economics and policy analysis. The overarching concern that cuts through all chapters is an inquiry into why certain industries have developed in one country and not in the other, including: the role that state innovation policy and/or IP policy played in such development; the nature of the state innovation policy/IP policy; and whether such policy has been causal, facilitating, crippling, co-relational, or simply irrelevant. The book asks what India and China can learn from each other, and whether there is any possibility of synergy. The book provides a real-life understanding of how IP laws interact with innovation and economic development in the six selected economic sectors in China and India. The reader can also draw lessons from the success or failure of these sectors.

Download or read book Remade in America written by Jeffrey K. Liker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1999-07-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last two decades, Japanese firms have challenged U.S. dominance in many manufacturing industries. This challenge has increasingly come in the form of transplant operations, and recognition has spread that their success owes a great deal to superior manufacturing management. Despite the ups and downs of the business cycle in Japan, there remains a core of world-class Japanese companies that have developed manufacturing management systems that companies throughout the world strive to emulate. In this edited volume, a team of eminent scholars uses case studies and large-scale surveys to explain in depth the process of transferring and transforming the best Japanese Management Systems (JMS) by both Japanese- and U.S.-owned firms. While the most successful of the Japanese manufacturing transplants rely, to varying degrees, on home country management techniques, they have had to adapt them to fit U.S. conditions. Similarly, the growing number of U.S. firms that are adopting these techniques to strengthen their own positions face a considerable challenge in transforming them to fit local conditions. A new environment necessarily compels the transformation of JMS. But despite the hurdles firms face, the evidence presented here and elsewhere strongly indicates that key aspects of JMS are remarkably transferable and successful in the United States. Combining scientific data with clear and engaging prose,Remade in America is a rich analytical resource for manufacturing professionals, as well as scholars and students of management and business.

Download or read book Designated Drivers written by G. E. Anderson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-06-19 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers insight into the Chinese economy through the lens of the auto industry, uses case studies to illustrate China's explosive growth over the last three decades, and explores the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese economy.

Download or read book Trade and American Leadership written by Craig VanGrasstek and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-03 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the nation-building of Alexander Hamilton to the trade wars of Donald Trump, trade policy has been a key instrument of American power and wealth. The open trading system that the United States sponsored after the Second World War serves US interests by promoting cooperation and prosperity, but also allows the allies to become more independent and China to rise. The case studies in Trade and American Leadership examine how the value of preferential trade programs is undercut by the multilateral liberalization that the United States promoted for generations, and how trade sanctions tend either to be too economically costly to impose or too modest to matter. These problems are exacerbated by a domestic political system in which the gains from trade are unevenly distributed, power is fragmented, and strategies are easily undermined. Trade and American Leadership places special emphasis on today's challenges, and the rising danger of economic nationalism.

Download or read book Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America written by Werner Baer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examine the changing nature of foreign investments in Latin America!Generously enhanced with easy-to-understand charts, tables, and graphs, this book covers the ins and outs of foreign direct investment in the established and emerging markets of Latin America. In addition to an overview of direct investment for the entire Latin American region in the 1990s, this valuable book examines specific countries’ experiences with FDI in that decade. These include Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.Spending on environmental projects is on the rise, and Latin American nations are at the forefront of this financial whirlwind in the developing world. Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America: Its Changing Nature at the Turn of the Century examines the difficulties of assessing environmental investments. It analyzes the role of international capital in Latin-American environmental issues and discusses the major players, such as the World Bank, in international capital and the environment.Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America presents case studies that illustrate: the history of FDI in Argentina and the impact of the privatization of state-owned enterprises in 1991-1993 the similarities and differences between 1990s FDI in Mexico and Chile the ways that modern investment in Brazil differs in purpose from investment there in previous economic eras how Peru addressed its balance-of-payments crisis in a time when its domestic financial markets were thin and there existed few sources of financing besides banks how Paraguay’s historical lack of infrastructure has hampered FDI efforts there Ecuador’s financial and balance-of-payments crisis-its currency is in free-fall and its financial institutions are on the brink of collapse . . . and much more!Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America packs all this valuable information into a single user-friendly source. As we move into the new millennium, no student, educator, or investor interested in this quickly evolving, volatile market should be without it!

Download or read book The Future of Canada s Auto Industry written by Ross Perry and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 1982 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the back cover: In this study, economist Ross Perry shows that all indicators point to a further restriction in the Canadian auto industry, resulting in further shrinkage of employment and the possibility of a major deterioration in the country's balance of payments. While the objective of the Auto Pact and Canadian automotive trade policy has always been job creation, Perry concludes that it will be increasingly difficult for the Canadian industry to be both viable and to generate jobs for the industrial heartland of Southern Ontario. Perry examines areas of specialization where Canada, with its advantages in energry-intensive products, could be competitive in the world market, and he outlines the two basic options for national policymakers - restructuring the industry for viability or resisting its decline.