In this chapter, the author describes the demand for advancing management technology in global production to succeed in corporate management. Recently, advanced companies in countries all over the world, including Japan, are shifting to global production. Particularly, today, the pressing management issue for Japanese manufacturers to survive in the global market is the “uniform quality worldwide and production at optimum locations.” Specifically, therefore, to reconstruct world-leading, the urgent mission for Japanese manufacturers is the establishment of “advanced principles of management technology” which realizes the “simultaneous achievement of QCD (quality, cost and delivery)” for the market value creation.
TopManagement Technology Shifting To Global Production
Advanced companies in the world, including Japan are shifting to global production to realize the “uniform quality worldwide and production at optimum locations” for survival in fierce competition (Amasaka, Ed., 2012; Amasaka, 2015, 2017a, 2022ab. 2023).
To attain successful global production, the “technical administration, production control, purchasing control, sales administration, information system, and other administrative departments” should maintain close cooperation with clerical and indirect departments while establishing strategic cooperative and creative business linkages with individual development, production and sales departments, and outside manufacturers (suppliers) (Amasaka, 2007).
Today, consumers have quick access to the latest information in the worldwide market thanks to the development of Information Technology (IT), and strategic organizational management of the production control department has become increasingly important. Simultaneous attainment of quality, cost and delivery (QCD) requirements is the most important mission for developing highly reliable new products ahead of competitors (Amasaka, 2004, 2008a,b; Amasaka, Ed., 2012).
This requires the urgent establishment of an innovative production control system for the next generation (called next-generation production control system). With a view to assuring that future management technology is a new leap forward for “Japanese manufacturing”, the “progress of production control of plants in the manufacturing industry” made so far by the manufacturing industry is summarized in Figure 1 (Amasaka, 2004a).
Figure 1.
Progress of management technology in the manufacturing industry
In the figure, the basis of the major production control methodologies, such as industrial engineering (IE), operations research, quality control, management of administration, marketing research, production control, and IT, are plotted along the vertical axis. Along the horizontal axis, some of the key elemental technologies, management methods, scientific methodologies, and so on are mapped out in a time series.
Since the beginning of the century, the operation of manufactures has shifted from domestic production in Japan to overseas production bases, and management technology has become increasingly complicated, as depicted in Figure 1.
For the production control department, the key to success in global production is modeling strategic supply chain management (SCM) for domestic and overseas suppliers with a systematization of its management methods. In the implementation stage, deep-plowing studies of the typical Toyota Production System (TPS) called Just in Time (JIT), Total Quality Management (TQM), partnering, and digital engineering will be needed in the future (Amasaka, 1999a,2004b, 2006, 2009).