as the Sanno-dai Shiki flowchart, the JMA flowchart, and the NOMA flowchart are major business process
modeling methods because they enable people to trace flows from the starting point to the end point with a
finger, and it is easy to share information when discussing it face to face, and they are thus suitable for a
bottom-up-style organization. By this feature, Japanese companies can realize effective bottom-up-based
business process improvement.
However, it is sometimes difficult to maintain business processes effectively because they are not usually
managed as structured components, and this causes difficulty in standardization of the business process. Some
Japanese companies have used widely spread business flowcharts (not containing hierarchical layers) on sheets
of A0 size, for drawing up their business processes. For some Japanese companies, it is difficult to think about
top-down layered business processes, and this situation sometimes makes it difficult to develop e-business
process modeling schemes. Corresponding to this issue, the authors propose a modeling tool to support interorganizational
the interorganizational process flow adjustment described in the following chapters.
3. Business Process Modeling Issues for Japanese Companies Considering Globalization
3.1. Characteristics of Traditional Business Process Improvement in Japan
When discussing the history of business process improvement in Japan, it is necessary to consider what has
been referred to as “Japanese-style management.” The “lifetime employment system” and “labor participation
in management” are two of the major characteristics of Japanese-style management. Quality circle (QC)
activities have been conducted on these conditions, and they contribute to improving the quality of Japanese
products. Not only to improve the quality of products, each employee observes the business process, and keeps
making improvements where possible.
Business process improvement used to be undertaken in a bottom-up rather than a top-down style. Soui-
Kufuu (a Japanese word) is one of the main keywords when discussing business process improvement in Japan.
It means creative originality and ingenuity. Each motivated and skilled employee in a production line or backoffice
keeps improving the business process in their own way to make it more efficient. The accumulation of
Soui-Kufuu results have become a kind of intellectual property. These are the reasons that the non-hierarchical
business process modeling method has been preferred. By using this kind of chart, employees can share
process flow information with each other. Also, recognition of ingenuity can be considered as one of the
reasons that they tend to prefer custom-made software.
3.2. Impact of Environmental Change
As mentioned in the previous section, traditional (but after the 1950’s) Japanese-style management and
Japanese-style business process modeling methods worked well and proved their effectiveness. However, the
environment that Japanese companies are facing has changed drastically. For example, a decrease in sales due
to shrinking of the domestic market requires companies to make efforts to reduce costs in order to maintain
profits. Some companies have had to transfer production overseas in order to reduce labor costs. Because of
this change in the environment, companies have had to adapt in ways such as the following: