ABSTRACT
Japan's production pyramids are crumbling, though this may not necessarily be readily apparent: the vertical keiretsu with their sprawling networks of subsidiaries and affiliates continue to exist, as do collaborative manufacturing arrangements. However, as both the analysis of aggregate procurement trends and the detailed case studies have shown, at least as far as the electronics industry is concerned, sourcing patterns and hence network configurations are clearly changing. Traditional subcontracting practices and vertical interfirm relationships are losing in importance, while partnerships with powerful independent suppliers are playing a larger and larger role. Viewed in their entirety, the findings suggest that many of the purported advantages of Japanese industrial organization were only of a temporary nature reflecting the particular conditions under which they arose.
