ABSTRACT
Large contractors use an average of 67 sub-contractors but in the precision machinery segment, the average is 132 (SMEA, Survey, 1979). The Toyota Motor Corporation uses 36,400 sub contractors (Japan Times, 9 January 1983: 10) and 73,000 of
than 60 per cent of manufacturing companies place orders with sub-contractors. The percentage varies considerably between different branches of manufacturing, rising to over 80 per cent of firms in machinery and textile and clothing manufacture and over 86 per cent in the automobile branch of manufacturing (SMEA, Survey, 1979).
