Suchergebnisse

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Japanese firms who make customized goods respond to supply chain failure caused by natural disaster, and shows the process and problem to build virtual dual sourcing with relation to product/process architecture.


Design/methodology/approach
Two case studies of Japanese manufacturing firm have been discussed. The research team had extensive site visits of major Japanese export industries (such as automotive, electronics, chemical and so on). The firms were carefully selected based on three criteria: the firms had major disaster-related damages; the senior executives of firms were willing to share their experiences and allow the research team to visit the sites; selected firms were notified in advance about the research perspective of how best to resume the flow of design information to customers speedily and effectively.


Findings
The main finding of this research is that visualizing design information of products is an essential step for virtual dual sourcing strategy or effective recovery from supply chain disruption, even if there is limitation because of its product/process architecture. Substituting other production line is not an absolute condition for contingent action. Balancing contingent activity and competitiveness is important for firms and building "virtual dual sourcing" system is one of the effective ways of business continuity plans (BCP).


Research limitations/implications
The researchers would imply that if product/process architecture is modular, visualizing design information for virtual dual sourcing is not so difficult. If product/process architecture is integral, visualizing design information for virtual dual is likely to be incomplete because it needs tacit knowledge for operation. Specifying and smoothly dispatching key persons with tacit knowledge would be effective for recovery from supply chain disruption. However, there still remain limitations in this research, for it is uncertain how much visualizing design information and virtual dual sourcing are effective in response to product/process architecture.


Practical implications
The researchers would imply that key persons with tacit knowledge should be dispersed for compensation of visualization of design information.


Originality/value
The originality of this research shows supply chain risk and recovery from the design information view of manufacturing. With real cases of the two companies having experience of natural disaster, this paper shows the process and problem to build virtual dual sourcing system, and shows balancing competitiveness and contingent activity.

The purpose of this book is to explore the ways that industries, under the pressures of global competition, balance sustained industrial competitiveness and robustness against major disasters. The book focuses mainly on the impact of disasters on supply chains for manufactured (mainly tradable) goods. A special feature of this particular theme is that companies have to deal with not only disasters that may come someday, but also global competition that industrial sites have to face every day. If, for example, companies add excessive amounts of inventory to their manufacturing sites for fear of the next major earthquake, they may not survive long enough to see the next earthquake due to their loss of global competitiveness. Thus, on a practical side, this book proposes that companies can balance global competitiveness and the anti-disaster robustness of industrial sites, rather than simply choosing one or the other, if they organize their efforts under the principles of continuous improvement (kaizen) and lean production--

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Contributors -- Foreword -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 Product Variety, Productive Organisation, and Industrial Models -- PART I: PATHWAYS TO FLEXIBLE MASS PRODUCTION -- 2 G.M. and the Evolving Industrial Organisation of American Automobile Manufacturing in the Interwar Years -- 3 Product Variety in the French Automobile Industry: A Look through the Past -- 4 The Progressive Emergence of Product Variety in the Japanese Automobile Industry -- 5 The Historical Evolution of Product Variety in the Auto Industry: An International Comparative Study -- PART II: ALTERNATIVE FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS FOR PRODUCT VARIETY -- 6 Beyond Flexibility: Toyota's Robust Process-Flow Architecture -- 7 A Flexible Organisation for Mini-Lot Production: The Emergence of Mini Carmakers in Japan -- 8 Developments in Assembly System Design: The Volvo Experience -- 9 Flexibility through Modularity: Experimentations with Fractal Production in Brazil and in Europe -- PART III: MANAGING FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS -- 10 Capability Building and Over-Adaptation: A Case of 'Fat Design' in the Japanese Auto Industry -- 11 Supplier Relations and Performance in Europe, Japan and the US: The Effect of the Voice/Exit Choice -- 12 Concurrent Engineering and Institutional Learning: A Comparison of French and Japanese Component Suppliers -- 13 The Production, Distribution, and Repair of Automobiles: New Relationships and New Competencies -- 14 Inter-Firm Relationships and Industrial Models -- CONCLUSION -- 15 Conclusion -- Index