The ‘Abominable Ohno Production System’. Competences, Monitoring, and Routines in Japanese Production Systems

Abstract

Abstract The chapter is concerned with the differences between Japanese automobile manufacturers and American manufacturers, with the focus largely on the period between the 1950s and 1960s, and the late 1980s and early 1990s. Toyota is taken as an archetypal Japanese automotive producer, while the Ford Motor Company is chosen as archetypal American automotive manufacturer. The chapter concentrates on the differences in their own right insofar as they reveal two different organizational archetypes and also tries to shed the light upon the concept of ‘routines’ through the examination of these differences. The author emphasizes that prevailing routines, in addition to serving to organize work and problem‐solving patterns, reflect the governance structures, modes of control, and compromises regarding competing interests, that prevail in an organization.