Manufacturing Technology Transfer : A Japanese Monozukuri View of Needs and Strategies

Based on first-hand experience transferring technology between Japan and other countries, this book offers information, advice, and methods for successful transfer of technology and the skills to use it. It covers skill transfer, production management, and manufacturing company classification with new surveys of changing Japanese company views on benefits and needs of transfer. It also includes case studies of transfers in the ship building and food equipment industries. The authors provide readers with a sound understanding of the breadth of issues involved to arm manufacturing engineers with the skills needed for successful skills and technology transfers.

Based on a bestselling book originally published in Japanese, Manufacturing Technology Transfer: A Japanese Monozukuri View of Needs and Strategies offers time-tested methods and little-known tips for achieving successful transfer of technology along with the skills required to operate that technology. Designed to support a series of lectures on technology transfer within a master’s course on the management of technology, it presents the results of years of research carried out at Hiroshima University.

The book delves into the authors’ decades of experience transferring technology between Japan and the rest of the world, particularly to developing countries from where much of the world’s future economic growth is expected. It contains case studies of successful technology transfers from both the ship building and food equipment industries. Its wide-reaching coverage examines methods of skill transfer, production management, and manufacturing company classification.

Introducing readers to the engineering activities that occur within the manufacturing industry, the book illustrates the engineering technology activities involved in manufacturing, along with the production management activities required to support them. It also explains how job simulators can help shorten learning times in the manufacturing industry in the same way that flight simulators are used to teach flying skills to pilots.

The book outlines a framework for teaching and learning processes that can be visualized in terms of an S-shaped learning curve. It explains how technology transfer overseas should be supported by contractual agreements between the parties concerned. Detailing the legal/contractual responsibilities for all parties involved, it also describes what you should do if problems arise during the transfer.

Integrating previously unpublished research results with illustrative case studies, this book is suitable for a wide audience within the manufacturing industry—including manufacturing engineering students in both developed and developing countries, those responsible for the development of manufacturing engineers in industry and elsewhere, and anyone interested in the international activities of Japanese manufacturing companies.