ABSTRACT
At 7.45 a.m., at a subsidiary of a Japanese consumer electronics firm in
rural central France, four Japanese engineers huddle over a faxed message that was waiting for them when they arrived that morning at 7:30. They are
distraught to learn that according to the R&D division in Chiba, Japan
their new chemical formulation – the basis of the latest version of their
videotape – is ‘out of specification’ in three of seven key parameters. Their
own in-house quality assurance results, in hand for the last two weeks, had
shown a tendency towards supeku outo (‘spec out’) in only one parameter.
The fax is brief, written in a rather teinei (formal) Japanese. The chief
engineer, Otake-san, is soon on the phone with his colleague in Chiba requesting a detailed report and his colleague’s feeringu (feeling) concerning
a revised schedule to move this new formulation into production. On the
wall is a company poster with the letters ‘c’ and ‘s’ in giant ink brushstrokes
admonishing ‘customer satisfaction’.
