![]()
Research questions
Manufacturing processes begin with product design engineering and progress to manufacturing engineering and production. Manufacturing engineers take charge of manufacturing engineering processes.1 People who are not involved in manufacturing tend to know less about the roles of manufacturing engineers than about the roles of product design engineers and production workers. Even some employees of manufacturing firms do not recognize completely the roles of manufacturing engineers. Although much previous research on manufacturing firms referred to manufacturing “engineering (technology),” manufacturing “engineers” have been little analyzed.
The main purpose of this book is to clarify the roles and human resource management practices of manufacturing engineers at Japanese firms. There are four specific purposes. The first purpose is to reveal the characteristics and importance of the roles of Japanese manufacturing engineers. How do Japanese manufacturing engineers contribute to efficient manufacturing (e.g., lean production)? The second purpose is to analyze differences in the roles of Japanese manufacturing engineers across manufacturing sectors, industries, and firms. What factors lead to differences in the roles of Japanese manufacturing engineers across sectors, industries, and companies? The third purpose is to compare the roles of Japanese manufacturing engineers with the roles of German, French, and American manufacturing engineers. What distinguishes the roles of manufacturing engineers in Japan? Finally, the human resource management practices and industrial relations of Japanese manufacturing engineers are examined and compared with the human resource management practices and industrial relations of German, French, and American manufacturing engineers.2 Through these analyses, lessons from Japan are then provided for Germany, France, and the United States.
Manufacturing industries in the United States and Japan
Manufacturing industries in the United States
In recent years, bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States has been a controversial topic. Many American manufacturing firms have transferred production from the United States to developing countries, such as Mexico, mainly because the wages of workers in developing countries are much lower than the wages of their counterparts in the United States. In addition, cheaper products than those made in the United States have been increasingly imported into the United States from other countries, such as China. Because of the production transfers and the importation of cheap products, there are many reports that a great many American manufacturing jobs have been lost.
Manufacturing industries create more and higher-wage jobs than many other industries. Some American manufacturing firms, such as Ford, Caterpillar, and General Electric (GE), have restored part of their production to the United States (e.g., Immelt 2012). However, the total number of American manufacturing jobs declined from 17,560,000 in 1998, to 17,265,000 in 2000, and 11,529,000 in 2010. Accompanying an economic recovery, this number gradually increased to 12,817,000 in 2019. The number of American manufacturing jobs in 2010 was 33.7 percent smaller than the number in 2000 but rose by 11.2 percent between 2010 and 2019.3
One of the main problems confronting American manufacturing industries is a worker skill gap. American workers’ skills are not at the level required by management (Kochan, Finegold, and Osterman 2012). The U.S. government has promoted apprenticeship and vocational training for workers in recent years, encouraged by lessons from Germany (Paul 2016; Tau 2015). However, many American company executives and some researchers insist that middle-skill jobs, rather than worker jobs, are needed in the United States. The middle-skill jobs are, for instance, electrical technicians, industrial engineering technicians, and semiconductor processors (Kochan, Finegold, and Osterman 2012), midlevel engineers and industrial engineers who manage production workers (Duhigg and Bradsher 2012), and production engineers (Pisano and Shih 2012).
Manufacturing industries in Japan
In contrast, Japanese manufacturers have responded to an increase in their overseas production and a decrease in manufacturing jobs in Japan differently than American manufacturing firms have done in the United States. While Japanese manufacturers have also partially restored production to Japan, they have simultaneously increased production at their plants in foreign countries. The average overseas production ratio of Japanese manufacturers increased from 18.1 percent in 2010 to 20.3 percent in 2012 and 25.1 percent in 2018. The average overseas production ratio of the transport equipment industry, including the automobile industry, was 46.9 percent in 2018, which was the highest in the Japanese manufacturing sector (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry 2020).4 The number of employees at manufacturing firms in Japan has declined from 15,690,000 in 1992 to 13,210,000 in 2000, to 10,600,000 in 2010, and to 10,630,000 in 2019. The number of Japanese manufacturing employees in 2019 was 19.5 percent smaller than the number in 2000 (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2021).5
Many Japanese manufacturers have made innovations in manufacturing technology. These manufacturing technology developments in Japan have been led mainly by manufacturing engineers with the help of workers. Japanese manufacturers tend to introduce new manufacturing technology to their mother plants in Japan and then transfer it to their plants in foreign countries. The new manufacturing technology in Japanese firms contributes to large increases in productivity and competitiveness (Nikkei Monozukuri 2011b, 2012, 2014b, 2015a). For example, Canon developed advanced manufacturing technology to fully automate the production of printer cartridges at its main plant in Japan and then transferred its automated production lines to its plant in the United States (Nihon Keizai Shimbun 2012; Nikkei Monozukuri 2013a; Toyo Keizai 2014a).6
A new mother plant of Honda in Japan is noteworthy (Nihon Keizai Shimbun 2013; Nikkei Monozukuri 2013b, 2013c, 2014a, 2016a).7 The automobile market in Japan is mature, so many Japanese automobile makers do not need new plants in Japan. However, to develop, utilize, and transfer new manufacturing technology, Honda opened a new mother plant in Japan in 2013.8 The cost of manufacturing cars at the new mother plant was 30 percent lower than the cost at other Honda plants. Automobile production processes consist mainly of stamping, welding, painting, and assembly. The stamping, welding, and painting processes, which had been mechanized or automated at Honda plants in Japan, became more compact and efficient at the new plant. For example, some painting processes were combined, and the total length of the painting processes was 40 percent shorter than at other Honda plants. More compact production machines and robots were introduced in assembly processes at the new plant, which required 40 percent fewer assembly workers than other Honda plants. At the new plant, manufacturing engineers and production workers collaborated closely to improve production processes.
Previous debates about manufacturing employees
American manufacturing engineers
Research on manufacturing engineers is scant in the United States. Winter (1993) claimed that a cultural wall between product design engineers and manufacturing engineers existed in the U.S. automobile industry. Product design engineers regarded manufacturing engineers as third-class citizens. Manufacturing engineers received lower salaries and recognition than did product design engineers. Utilizing research by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Hutchins (2004) stressed that manufacturing engineers failed to foresee the imminent increase in outsourcing that occurred at American firms. American manufacturing engineers could not determine “make/buy” decisions, evaluate and manage domestic and foreign suppliers, and control manufacturing processes.9
Japanese production workers
Until around the 1990s, much previous research regarding Japanese manufacturing employees focused on production workers and assistant and first-line supervisors who were promoted from production jobs. Continuous improvement (kaizen) activities conducted by Japanese production workers, such as those performed by quality control (QC) circles, were regarded as one of the main reasons for efficient manufacturing. However, Koike (1994, 2001) claimed that on-line troubleshooting skills, rather than off-line activities by Japanese production workers, contributed to large increases in productivity. Fifty to 60 percent of Japanese production workers possess the know-how to solve problems and to cope with changes, in addition to repetitive production skills. The integrated skills of production workers are similar to the skills of white-collar employees. Therefore, Koike insisted that performance appraisals are indispensable as incentives for production workers, as well as for white-collar employees. Based on the skills and pay systems of Japanese production workers, Koike stressed the “white-collarization of blue-collar workers” as a characteristic of Japanese production workplaces. Koike (1990) concluded that the skills and skill formation systems of Japanese production workers were reasonable and could be transferred to plants in other countries.
Extending Koike’s analysis, Shibata (1999, 2001, 2008, 2016) clarified that the skills and skill formation systems of Japanese production workers were only gradually moved to plants in other countries, even in Japanese overseas plants. This is mainly because work practices, including skills and skill formation systems, are influenced by embedded social norms and values in each country. The skill formation systems of production workers are closely related to their job transfers. Concerning job transfers, Shibata (1999, 2001, 2016) compared the system of relying on trust relationships between production workers and their s...
