Abstract
Japanese companies may excel at kaizen, but they struggle with supply chain reforms, largely because they lack strong supply chain leaders. And this deficit is a global issue. Using two leading Japanese companies as examples, Mikihisa Nakano presents a prescription for supply chain reforms in this turbulent era.
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References
1.Drawn from AlixPartners’ Disruption Index 2025: https://www.alixpartners.com/media/43nndqfg/2025-alixpartners-disruption-index.pdf
2.John Bessant et al., “An Evolutionary Mod el of Continuous Improvement Be havior,” Technovation, 21 (2001), 67-77.
3.Masaaki Imai, KAIZEN: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. McGraw-Hill, 1986.
4.Ivan D. Steiner, Group Process and Productivity. Academic Press, 1972.
5.According to Iwao, continuous improvement can produce large or radical improvements or breakthroughs that require various units to participate and coordinate. This view suggests that Kaizen could be applied to supply chain reforms. In such cases, as with the disjunctive tasks discussed later, top man agers play a crucial role. Shumpei Iwao, “Continuous Improvement Revisited: Organization Design as the Last Step in Gaining the Full Competitive Advantage of Kaizen,” Management and Business Review 2 no. 1 (2022), 47-52.
6.Peter Bolstorff and Robert Rosenbaum, Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model. American Management Association, (2011). The SCOR was developed by the Supply Chain Council (now the Association for Supply Chain Management: ASCM: https://www.ascm.org/
7.For example: Stanley E. Fawcett et al., “A Three-Stage Implication Model for Supply Chain Collaboration,” Journal of Business Logistics, 29 no. 1 (2008), 93-112. Alexandre M. Rodrigues et al., “Linking Strategy, Structure, Process, and Perfor mance in Integrated Logistics,” Journal of Business Logistics, 25 no. 2 (2004), 65-94. Robert Handfield et al, “Seven Plus One Flavors of Global Supply Chain” Management and Business Review, 4 no. 3-4 (2024), 32-40.
8.Many people may regard SCM as a set of conjunctive tasks, in which the group’s perfor mance is determined by its weak est member. This view is based on the theory of constraints (TOC) proposed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his book, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement (Routledge, 1984), which manages the entire supply chain flow by finding and using its bottleneck. This approach is well sui ted to supply chain operations.
9.LOGI-BIZ.com (viewed August 2020), p. 19.
10.Mikihisa Nakano and Nobunori Oji, “Success Factors for Continuous Supply Chain Process Improvement: Evidence from Japanese Manufacturers.” International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications 20 no. 3 (2017), 217-236.
11.Mikihisa Nakano et al., “Process Integration Mechanisms in Internal Supply Chains: Case Studies from a Dynamic Resource-Based View,” International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, 16 no. 4 (2013), 328-347.
12.From an interview article in the Decem ber 2020 issue of Diamond Harvard Business Review. (p. 71)
13.Jay R. Galbraith, Designing Organizations: Strategy, Structure, and Process at the Business Unit and Enterprise Levels. Jossey-Bass (2014).
14.Mikihisa Nakano and Nobunori Oji, “The Transition from a Judgmental to an Integrative Method in Demand Fore casting: A Case Study of a Japa nese Company,” International Journal ofOperations & Production Management 32 no. 4 (2012), 386-397. One of the authors, Mr. Oji, was the logistics department group manager at Kao. I inter viewed Mr. Oji several times us ing an IC recorder and transcribing promptly. I sent the transcribed documents back for Mr. Oji for review. I also confirmed the results of the interview through other sources including published articles and internal documents provided by Mr. Oji. After the formal interviews, I had several discussions with Mr. Oji in person, by telephone, and by email. Finally, other members of the group reviewed our discussions. These data triangulation procedures helped us to ensure construct validity. Mikihisa Nakano and Kazuki Matsuyama, “Proactive Behaviors for Supply Chain Risk: A Case Study of Production Transfer from China to Thailand at Ricoh,” The Journal of Japanese Operations Management and Strategy 13 no. 1 (2023), 1-19. The information collected from Ricoh was rooted in four interviews with the production management department manager at the Thai factory, two interviews with the project leader of the SCM steering team at HQ, and one interview with th e head of the production depart ment at HQ. These, too, were recorded using an IC recorder and promptly transcribed. The interviewees reviewed the transcripts. We also verified the interview data using outside sources. We then conducted written surveys with the people who performed the actions described in our case study to confirm that we had the details right. These data triangulation procedures helped us to obtain construct v alidity.
15.Hau L. Lee, The New AAA Supply Chain, Management and Business Review, 1 no. 1 (2021), 173-176.
16.Nathan Bennett and James Lemoine, Wha t a Difference a Word Makes: Un derstanding Threats to Performance in a VUCA World. Business Horizons, 57 (2014), 311-317.
17.According to research I conducted with Professor Kazuki Matsuyama of Doshisha University, the perception of an “SCM philosophy” composed of holistic view, collaborative view, and valu e-focused view encourages proac tivity among those broadly defined as SCM human resources. Understanding the mechanisms that help employ ees to develop such an SCM philoso phy will require further research. For more information on SCM philosophy, please refer to the following papers: John T. Mentzer et al., “Defining Supply Chain Management,” Journal of Business Logistics, 22 no. 2 (2001), 1-25. Pankaj C. Pat el et al., “The Effects of Stra tegic and Structural Supply Chain Orientation on Operational and Customer-Focused Performance,” Decision Sciences, 44 no. 4 (2013), 713-753.