Chuma.

• Position: Human relations practices in the Japanese machine tool industry - Brief Article

Japan has led the world in machine tool production since 1982. In examining how the Japanese machine tool industry has achieved this record, Chuma maintains that human relations practices have been especially important. He finds that a concurrent comprehensive and egalitarian information-sharing system exists between production workers and design and development engineers. This type of system was established in Japan in the 1980s, when machines had become so complex that close collaboration among...