Although the same transfer machine systems and similar parts are used to produce the same car components, the operating rate of the production line at a Japanese transplant in the United States has been lower by more than 10% than the operating rate at its mother plant in Japan. Differences in the troubleshooting and machine maintenance skills possessed by production workers, maintenance workers, and team leaders (assistant first-line supervisors) are found to be the main cause of this performance gap. At the root of these skill differences is the contrast between the choice workers experience concerning transfers using the job-bid system at the transplant and the supervisor control that exists at the mother plant.
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