ABSTRACT
The old adversarial atmosphere will dissolve and an atmosphere of cooperation will begin to form that can only energize labor-management relations and promote fundamental improvement. European and American managers are busy studying and experimenting with kanban, Just-In-Time, and other features of the Toyota production system. One needs a proper understanding of the structure of production, what the functions of each element of production are, and how the various elements relate to one another. Thus the difference between Western production philosophies and the new Japanese production philosophy lays at the most basic level, at the conceptual points of departure of the several approaches. The phenomena of process and operation have not always been distinguished clearly because they blend together when operations are carried out by a single individual. As long as there are errors in the organization of processes, product flaws will result no matter how perfectly operations are performed.
