Manufacturing best practices: observations from study tours to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan

Abstract

Discusses the best practices adopted by some of the leading manufacturers in four Asian countries – Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Data were gathered from visits to 22 companies during 1992, 1993 and 1994. Presents the continuing and emerging best practices under the headings: leadership and planning; customer focus; people management and process management. Discusses future developments and progress in the four countries. The analysis shows that these companies are quite advanced in the areas of leadership, planning, customer focus and people development and management. The companies had adopted a very wide range of strategies and improvement programmes and had planned significant improvement programmes for the future.

Citation

Sohal, A.S. and Ritter, M. (1995), "Manufacturing best practices: observations from study tours to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan", Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 4-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635779510102810