Narrowing the Gap? Stock turns in the Japanese and Western car industries

The Japanese motor industry is held up as an exemplar of world class manufacturing, setting the standards by which Western manufacturers measure themselves. Just-in-time or lean manufacturing is receiving particular attention. This paper analyses stock turnover data on eight Japanese vehicle assemblers and 33 major components suppliers over the period 1975-1988, and that of 15 Western assemblers and 41 suppliers over a similar period. This analysis reveals that Japanese manufacturers are not uniformly ‘lean’ but exhibit a wide range of performance, with Toyota standing out as the best. Although improving, Western assembler performance falls far short of the Japanese, and there is no sign of the gap narrowing. The gap between Western suppliers and their Japanese counterparts actually widened during the 1980s.