There are many factors, which are responsible for the "love affair" and adoption of Japanese techniques and philosophy by many North American and European managers. Four main factors are global competition, limitations of Taylorist-Fordist production paradigm, application of new technology requiring a skilled and cooperative workforce and the apparent success of the Japanese paradigm. Japan a completely devastated country has emerged in the post war period as the world"s second largest economy after the United States. This miracle has been attributed to well-planned and executed methods of production management especially in the manufacturing industry. The competitiveness of companies such as...
discussed above will find that it will not make them competitive and may result in total failure. However one cannot ignore the advantages of JIT manufacturing technique, as it is a very useful tool in ensuring competitiveness if the system is set up properly in conjunction with the other factors in the Japanese model. It is important to understand that to be competitive, a company must have a well-planed production system. This can be done using several management strategies as long as they are well planed and suitable for the nature of the company and its national culture.