The philosophy of the integration of management, labour
and customers is also featured in the Japanese thinking
towards the relationship between productivity and
quality. The Japanese were the first really to develop
customer-driven quality and to understand the link
between productivity and quality in the Deming chain
reaction (Figure 2).
An international quality study, a joint project of Ernst &
Young and the American Quality Foundation[8], found
that the Japanese place more importance on
incorporating customer research than their American
counterparts. They also use technology twice as much in
meeting customer expectations. As with productivity,
they emphasize more strongly the process of
improvement, simplification and cycle time reduction,
with marked employee involvement.