|
|
Notes from Toyota-Land: An American Engineer in Japan
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$26.00
Asia Trips Trips Price: $26.00
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Cornell University/ILR Press
|
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.762920952
EAN: 9780801442896
ISBN: 0801442893
Label: Cornell University/ILR Press
Manufacturer: Cornell University/ILR Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2005-09
Publisher: Cornell University/ILR Press
Studio: Cornell University/ILR Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
|
In 1996, Darius Mehri traveled to Japan to work as a computer simulation engineer within the Toyota production system. Once there, he found a corporate experience far different from what he had expected. Notes from Toyota-land, based on a diary that Mehri kept during his three years at an upper-level Toyota group company, provides a unique insider's perspective on daily work life in Japan and charts his transformation from a wide-eyed engineer eager to be part of the "Japanese Miracle" to a social critic, troubled by Japanese corporate practices. Mehri documents the sophisticated "culture of rules" and organizational structure that combine to create a profound control over workers. The work group is cynically used to encourage employees to work harder and harder, he found, and his other discoveries confirmed his doubts about the working conditions under the Japanese Miracle. For example, he learned that male employees treated their female counterparts as short-term employees, cheap labor, and potential wives. Mehri also describes a surprisingly unhealthy work environment, a high rate of injuries due to inadequate training, fast line speeds, crowded factories, racism, and lack of team support. And in conversations with his colleagues, he uncovered a culture of intimidation, subservience, and vexed relationships with many aspects of their work and surroundings. As both an engaging memoir of cross-cultural misunderstanding and a primer on Japanese business and industrial practices, Notes from Toyota-land will be a revelation to everyone who believes that Japanese business practices are an ideal against which to measure success.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: good insights, great read
Comment: This is is a sophisticated and intelligent analysis of work, life and politics in Toyota-land. The horror of daily life, and the political manipulation and corruption make it an interesting counter-part to Anna Funder's Stasiland. It makes one wonder, where would you rather be a native worker, in Japan, or in the old East Germany. A gripping book, surprisingly enough. Mehri writes with the insight of someone far more experienced in the ways of the workplace.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You have to have worked at a japanese company to truly appreciate it
Comment: I have worked in the Japanese automotive industry, and I have friends that have as well (both management and lower level at several different companies). This book is invaluable in dispelling the myth of "superior" Japanese management and manufacturing. Many of the lower rated reviews don't seem to understand lean manufacturing and how Japanese culture actually prevents operations from being efficient and hinders creative, effective design.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Maybe You Can Argue with Sucess
Comment: An insightful book, the story of an American engineer in Japan. The author took advantage of this unique opportunity to tell of his experiences working for a Toyota subsidiary in Japan. In Japan, the conditions seem harsh on the lower level engineering and office staff. Many American business studies stress the conformity of the Japanese decision making process and the "good-neighbor" policy relationships of corporations to the city councils in the area in which they reside. The author demonstrates from office experiences that the conformity is often enforced by the individual's fear of being ostracized. It is a very top-down hierarchal structure with some values that American corporations would consider politically incorrect, such as the role of career women and how foreign guest workers are treated.
The author explains the concept of tatemae versus honne. In the workplace confrontation is suppressed under the mask of tatemae (the way things are supposed to be). After some social drinking the individual's "honne", how one actually feels may appear.
I appreciate what this author has done. What I read was so different from what other business books have to say about Japanese management that the reader has to wonder is this author at a typical Japanese corporation. Could one judge all of American corporate culture by working at a subsidiary of General Motors? Probably yes, Corporate Cultures must carry most of the cultural trait of the country.
Any reader from the curious to a business studies major will find this book fascinating. A light book, no analyzing, just the author telling of his office experiences in a radically different culture.
We have all heard of American corporations adopting many of the Japanese business practices. Their strong points seem to be to aid the factory floor. Hopefully their office culture will not be adopted here.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Somewhat interesting
Comment: As others have reviewed, this is obviously the author's first job in an industrial setting and some observations are quite naive. It is also not a Toyota plant as one might assume from the title, but a little further down the supply chain. This, in itself is a unique viewpoint, as little has been written about Toyota's 1st or 2nd Tier suppliers or their captive companies. If you have many years of engineering or manufacturing experience under your belt, you might consider that many of his negative observations are not unique to Japan - just lack of exposure on his part.
An interesting read to see the social side of Japanese industry, but little insight into the inner working of TPS.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An interesting memior of a first job
Comment: As other reviewers have mentioned, parts of this reflect experiences the author would have at any first job.
Japan is definitely different (from the US anyhow) especially in the way women are treated, and consensus is created (and desired).
Sure parts are a bit naive and parts are unreflective, but that's what makes it interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
