2009 Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 154-164
With the mass retirement of the skilled engineers(year 2007 problem), and with the hot pursuit of the emerging nations such as China, Japan's manufacturing strength is shaking. How should Japan maintain and enhance its Manufacturing DNA? In this paper, we focus on mother plant as a device which consolidates skills and knowledge of Japanese manufacturing industry. In order to support the formulation of manufacturing strategy that leads to Japanese manufacturing industry to survive in the world market, we aim at providing check tools that would allow the relevant firms to comprehend the current status of their Manufacturing DNA, as well as to construct their own DNA portfolio. Using 27 keywords extracted from 56 advanced cases of mother plant. five types of Manufacturing DNA were devised, and an attempt was made to develop a check sheet. Then by applying the check sheet to five cases, it was verified that we can indicate the characteristics of each firm's strategy in clearly understandable terms.
