In this paper, we examine the diversity of transaction patterns observed between a single pair of one automaker and one auto parts supplier in Japan. Assumed reasonably that the factor of relational skill is under control in such dyadic transaction relationship, other factors that may influence...

This note is based on an interview with Mr. Kaneyoshi Kusunoki, who worked closely with Mr. Taiichi Ohno, the creator of so-called Toyota Production System. An interview with him was conducted on April 17, 1996 by the authors. First, there was a brief interview on Mr. Kusunoki's involvement in...

This paper describes recent developments of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Australia (TMCA), re-interpreting its patterns of competitive activities as an emergent global strategy. By emergent global strategy the author means a pattern of strategic activities that does not necessarily follow a...

This paper reports the result of a questionnaire survey conducted by the authors in 1997. About 200 responses described patterns of product development routines, organizational patterns, performance, and product-market characteristics for a recently completed project that the company recognized...

This paper is a memo of an interview with Taiichi Ohno, known as the creator of so-called Toyota Production System (TPS). The interview was conducted by the authors for about three hours on July 16, 1984 at the headquarters of Toyota Gosei (a Toyota group parts supplier at which Mr. Ohno was an...

Inter-firm information systems in the automobile industry have evolved from firm-specific networks to industrial standard networks and further to internet. This paper examines how electronic parts procurement systems in the automobile industry affected its patterns of inter-firm transactions...

In view of the unprecedented devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), the psychological overreaction tends to emphasize the safety aspects at the expense of the basic principle of designing industrial supply chains that achieve competitiveness and robustness simultaneously....