An Empirical Study of American and Japanese Approaches to Quality Management in the United States

The results are reported of personal observations of on‐site visits to 10 firms in transportationand electric‐electronic industries. Important differences are detailed that were observedbetween traditional US firms, nontraditional US firms, and Japanese companies operating in theUS, with regard to quality management. Interviews with managers indicate various degrees ofconcern for quality and its improvement. It appears that Japanese and nontraditional USmanagers commit to quality and use of quality as a strategic tool to improve market shares,profit, and productivity. In addition, pure financial measures are used to evaluate managers bytraditional US firms, as opposed to nontraditional US firms and Japanese firms that add qualityperformance to financial measures before evaluating employee performance. Traditional USfirms are more active in improving quality of incoming materials and outgoing products, whilepaying less attention to the production process. Nontraditional US firms and Japanese firmsemphasize the quality of both incoming parts and the production process.