The Hybrid Factory. Japanese Production System in the United States.

As Japanese automotive and electronics firms have expanded their operations into the United States more attention has been focused on Japanese management and manufacturing. In Hybrid Factory a team of Japanese and American scholars explores the potential for the effective transfer of Japanese management and production systems that have been credited with giving Japanese firms their competitive superiority to a much different national culture. The book looks in particular at which management factors, that provide strength to Japanese production systems, can survive the transfer to the United States or whether the radically different social and cultural environment makes such a transfer impossible.

Contributors:
Tetsuo Abo, University of Tokyo
Hiroshi Itagaki, Saitama University
Duane Kujawa, University of Miami
Kunio Kamiyama, Josai University
Hiroshi Kumon, Hosei University
Tetsuji Kawamura, Teikyo University
Mira Wilkins, Florida International University

Tetsuo Abo is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tokyo and Head of the Japanese Multinational Enterprise Study Group.