ABSTRACT
In German companies there is a section chief responsible for each production section, and his responsibility is different from that of a section chief in Japan. Discussing JIT in an international context, it has been alleged that large Japanese companies like Toyota and others were exploiting their sub-contractors and that this was the reason why they were so successful in world markets. The answer given by Toyota and companies that had introduced JIT systems was that they did have firm links with sub-contractors but that they did not just shift their inventories on to them. They stated that they also passed their know-how and control know-how to their suppliers so that the latter were then enabled to use JIT systems. In spite of a certain lack of skilled labour, they are in fact given help by the larger companies so suppliers can in turn reduce their own inventory.
