Human Factors behind the Implopment of Japanese Product Quality

This article presents the view that the remarkable post‐war improvement of Japanese product quality is attributable primarily to human factors in addition to experience gained in war‐time manufacture of military hardware. Other factors responsible for the phenomenon include organisation for quality at various levels, emphasis upon training, a policy of technological modernisation and innovations in production management such as just‐in‐time, total productive maintenance, inspection by workmen, continuous process development. Characteristics derived from Japanese culture, such as an overly moralistic outlook regarding the sale of defective merchandise, as well as group orientation, leading to better co‐operation among workers, and between the parent company and its subcontractors, are also relevant in this respect.