ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 summarizes the characteristics and importance of Japanese manufacturing engineers. Japanese manufacturing engineers play hidden but important linchpin roles to realize the smooth flow of manufacturing processes (i.e., product design engineering, manufacturing engineering, and production). The linchpin roles of manufacturing engineers are evident in four core tasks: designing production processes, developing production methods, preparing for the production of new products, and improving existing production processes to increase productivity. Japanese unionized manufacturing engineers are oriented toward production workplaces and have few individual choices regarding their transfers. Furthermore, in this chapter, four closing implications from this book are provided: a key lesson from Japan for the United States, a theoretical contribution that notes linchpin roles in Japanese management research, practical problems that arise in the performance of linchpin roles, and the importance of social choices made by manufacturing engineers and upper managers regarding the future roles of manufacturing engineers and the adoption of new technology.
