Academic literature on the topic 'Uchikoza'

Abstract Toyota was the first company to successfully implement what are now known as just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing practices. Toyota began disseminating these practices to other Japanese manufacturers, including its competitors, in the 1970s. The domestic dissemination process was largely complete by the late 1970s. The JIT concept was first introduced to English-speaking engineering and management practitioners in an article by a group of Toyota employees, Sugimori, Kusunoki, Cho, and Uchikawa (1977). They characterize the Toyota production system as having two equally important features: (1) the JIT production system, which provides “only the necessary products, at the necessary time, in the necessary quantity,” and (2) Toyota’s “respect-for-human” system of encouraging active employee participation, eliminating wasteful movement by workers, protecting workers’ safety, and empowering workers with greater responsibility and authority in the workplace. Kimura and Terada (1981), also Toyota employees, describe Toyota’s JIT production system as a “pull system” with three goals: (1) preventing the transmission of the amplified fluctuations of demand or production volume from a succeeding process to the preceding process; (2) minimizing the fluctuation of in-process inventory so as to simplify inventory control; and (3) decentralizing management authority by allowing shop floor supervisors and foremen to make decisions on production and inventory control.