Fundamental knowledge about building business relationship with Japanese manufacturers for non Japanese oversea enterprises.

1. Relationship Building with Japanese manufacturer

2. Preface
§ To establish a relationship with Japanese manufacturer, first thing we have to do is to understand them. Because
without understanding them there wonʼt be firm relationship with them. We sometimes make a mistake by focusing
on presenting about us.
§ During the presentation, if our words wonʼt hit their mind, the time spent was useless for both. And they will feel
the meeting with us is worthless.
§ To avoid that, we first need to understand about Japanese manufacturer and their commonsense about quality. This
slides can give you some hint of Japanese manufacturersʼ common thoughts and beliefs.
2016/10/13 Copyright 2016 Yuichi Moriwaki 2

3. Understand why Japanese products have high quality
Almost everybody knows that “Made-in-Japan” is the label of high quality. But, while achieving high quality, the price of
products are reasonable and inexpensive. What is the secret?
Why Japanese manufacturers are very severe at the quality of product? Who knows the answer?
The trust and
belief only be
brought by
honest behavior.
Honest behavior is;
to keep promise
to be punctual
to tell truth
to not tell lies
to not wangle
to not palter
to not quibble
to not tergiversate
Idea of;
No excuse
No resignation
Pursuing
possibility,
Perfection and
Completeness
Product Design
Production
Engineering
Quality Control
Procurement
control
Common Japanese sense
The relationship
can be kept
under the trust
and belief.
Japanese
considers the
relationship
between
people is
important.
ü Shinto
ü Bushido
ü Confucianism
ü Buddhism
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4. How Japanese start the changes?
Goal
Definition
• On time
delivery
• Highest quality
• Lower cost
Collect wide
range of
ideas
Define new
rule & change
the process
See the
efficiency and
enhance or
change the
process
Know the fact
ü How we deliver
ü How is our
quality
ü How is our cost
ü What is wrong
Put the concrete idea
of target
• If people donʼt
make any excuse
against the
occurrence of
defects, there
easily will be
many ideas of our
wrong points and
weakness
Accept any idea
ü Collect from
various aspects
ü Do not blame
ideas
ü Know the points
ü Build the logic
and verify
• If people pursue
the perfection and
completeness,
there will be no
limitation of ideas
and no one
should reject
strange ideas.
New rules
ü Everyone can
join the new
rule discussion
ü Ask for ideas for
rule
enhancement
• People can be
proactive against
the rules what
they defined.
• If the purpose of
new rule is clear
it is very easy to
apply to actual
activity and
change the
process.
Share the efficiency
ü Discuss for
better efficiency
ü Discuss issues
challenges in a
new rules
• As people can be
proactive against
the new rules and
process, the cyclic
work of update of
rules and
enhancement of
process will be
quick.
KAIZEN Circulation
As every employees join this
cyclic activity, there will be
the atmosphere of
improvement.
The atmosphere also affects
engineers learning attitude
and takes root of
improvement &
enhancement mind.
In Japan this activity is know
as “KAIZEN” (QC circle
activity).
“KAIZEN” means “make it
better than before”. So
every one can join the
activity and it has no
limitation. Any ideas and any
objectives are OK as far as it
brings KAIZEN.
Understand why Japanese products have high quality
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5. How Japanese find the improvement points?
Seeking higher
Quality tool or
methodology
Finding
weakness
There are two approaches
Responsible
team find the
new technology
for it
Everyone can
find from the
daily activity
Bring &
implement the
new technology
Discuss and
take immediate
action by each
team
Stay back and
wait until it
suits to
organization
Review and
check the
efficiency within
the team
Review and
check and put it
to the next step
by the
responsible
team
Share &
exchange the
idea and
progress
between teams
Top down
approach
Bottom up
approach
Top down approach is effective as far as the improvement point is clear and the team is small enough.
The responsible team assigned for quality improvement need to lead the entire activity and review the efficiency of activity.
If the efficiency wonʼt meet the target level, the activity may be removed. The front line engineers will wait for the next direction.
Even spending 3 years or 5 years there will be no “mood for quality improvement” among the front line engineers.
Bottom up approach is effective in any size of organization. Each individual can be the member of improvement. Any ideas any
thoughts are welcome. It may be difficult to achieve the target level of quality only by one program, but the combination of
activity will bring more efficiency of improvement. Possibility of failure of activity is very low. The “mood” for quality
improvement will be radicated.
Those both “top down approach” and “bottom up approach” have
the equivalent importance.
Understand why Japanese products have high quality
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6. What kind of offshore supplier does Japanese OEM expect?
It is obvious that Japanese OEMs expect offshore servicer who understand the idea of quality
improvement, KAIZEN and relationship building.
So what we have to show them is;
ü Enough skill level in a certain technology area with concrete example (Case study)
ü High process management capability to deliver high quality deliverables (Internal activity of KAIZEN)
ü How we have been improving our engineering capability on the cutting edge technology area
(Proactive Investment)
ü Rich experience with Japanese manufacturers (True story of strengthening relationship with
Japanese customers)
And at the same time we should obtain their supplier evaluation process, otherwise we may present our
capability to someone who have no interest on that topic.
On the next slide, there you can see one example of supplier evaluation process chart. Even this is a
sample, it may give you clear idea of the path to start business with Japanese manufacturer.
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7. Process of supplier evaluation
Know about
the supplier
1st supplier
evaluation
2nd supplier
evaluation
Pilot project
(3rd
evaluation)
Project
participation
(4th evaluation)
Partner
proposal
Information collection
- Candidate
selection from
company profile,
location, current
business status,
etc.
Interviewing
- Meet people &
collect examples
of business cases,
strong points,
weak points,
capabilities,
experiences,
quality assurance,
employee training
& education.
Business
investment and
deployment. etc.
- Confirm the
stories and case
studies are
realistic.
Fact confirmation
- See the factory,
laboratory,
development center.
- Meet local people,
managers and have
direct QA meeting
especially about the
current skills,
expertise, training,
education on
technical aspects.
- See if the current
process can produce
high quality
deliverables.
- See the management
documents and
managing rules and
methods.
- Watch the team
communication
methods, disciples,
rules of meeting,
employees behaviors.
Candidate selection Possibility finding Evaluation Confirmation
Capability
confirmation
- Ask small projects
to evaluate the
management and
technical skills.
- Have a review
meeting to give
the conclusion.
Starting projects
- RFQ for middle
size project
- Watch the
proactiveness
and customer
dependency of
the management
Further discussion
- Discussion for
further
involvement
- Discussion based
on supplierʼs
proposal.
Confidence building Partnership finding
Provide sufficient
information and
company data.
- Company profile,
history, policy and
philosophy
- Business
development and
deployment
methodology
- Strong points,
success story,
secret of strength.
Provide sufficient
case studies
- Show the strength,
skills, capabilities,
attractive points
with actual case
studies and facts.
- Give other
customers
evaluation against
supplier.
- Give the current
project profile and
story of the
engagement.
Present and introduce
our actual activity.
- Show how we are
executing projects,
managing the project
and producing the
quality.
- Show every thing
from training to
management which
are related to delivery.
Form a team &
establish
communication path
- Show our
confidence in
engaged area.
- Be proactive in all
activities,
specification
definition,
clarification of
requirement,
feasibility
assurance, test
case expansion
and schedule &
task management.
- Proactively discuss
on project control.
- Show our plan,
report the
progress, ensure
the quality, deliver
on time and
submit necessary
documents
without any
insufficiency.
Form a large team &
strong management
and establish closer
communication path
- Show our
capability for a
large project for
both on
development and
management.
Propose a closer
partnership
- Show our
confidence with
the benefit of
customer.
What customer wants to do
What Supplier must do
L
P
Q
Procurement div.
Front Line div.
Quality Assurance div.
L
L
P
LP Q
L Q L Q
L
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8. Thank You
Step by step…