Japanese Automakers in Europe

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a case study of the Honda company in Europe. More specifically, in an effort to ascertain whether or not changes are required to ensure the future profitability of the company in the European market, this paper compares Honda's corporate strategy in Europe directly with other automakers' strategies in Europe. Whereas other studies have focused their efforts on other major auto companies, such as Toyota and GM, this study focuses on Honda and Japanese corporate strategy in the European market.

From the Paper:

"The Japanese production system has been characterized as flexible, focusing on "lean production" which is why many automakers are interested in gleaning as much information as possible about Japanese strategic management practices (Womack, et. al, 1990). The Japanese production system does not focus on traditional mass production methods, but rather uses a "system of flexible production that is numerically controlled, reprogrammable machines capable of adapting movements to many different tasks" (Chapman et. al, 1995). In addition, worker in Japan are managed and trained in a flexible manner, learning to perform many different jobs instead of specializing in simply one (Chapman et. al, 1995). Production is usually organized in such a manner that "just in time" delivery or assembly is available, which "reduces the need for large inventories and floor space to accommodate it" (Chapman, et. al, 1995, p. 2)."

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