Adoption of Just-in-Time Manufacturing Methods at U.S.- and Japanese-Owned Plants: Some Empirical Evidence

Since the early 1980’s, when Japanese manufacturing firms in a number of industries—including auto, electronics, and machinery—achieved high levels of international competitiveness, Japanese manufacturing practices—particularly those associated with just-in-time manufacturing (JIT)—have attracted considerable attention in North America. Transfer to the United States of JIT is characterized by special production management practices involving inventory and quality control, industrial relations, and supplier-manufacturer relationships. Because so many different aspects of plant operation are involved, the transfer of JIT requires a substantial effort on the part of U.S. manufacturers. Despite this barrier, anecdotal evidence suggests that substantial transfer of Japanese production methods has taken place and that this transfer has had a significant impact on the performance of U.S. manufacturing plants. However, there is little empirical evidence of this process that is based on broad samples of plants and workers from various manufacturing industries. The purpose of this paper is to help fill this gap in the literature. Using a sample of U.S.and Japanese-owned manufacturing plants in the United States in three different industries, we show that the implementation of JIT has improved many of the performance measures for these U.S. manufacturing plants.