Manufacturing Engineering in Europe and Japan: A Preliminary Comparative Case Study of Two Automotive Component Suppliers

Abstract:

In recent years, Japanese manufacturers have been seeking to increase the supporting capabilities (e.g., product and process engineering) of their overseas production facilities. As a result, increased attention is being paid by both academics and practitioners to the tasks and functions of manufacturing engineering, and how these tasks and functions may be transferred overseas. However, compared to Japan and the United States, we could find few academic works in English or Japanese that address the tasks and functions of manufacturing engineering in Europe.
In an effort to address this hole in the literature, this paper compares and contrasts the tasks and functions of manufacturing engineering in a European automotive component supplier with that of a Japanese supplier of a similar automotive component. Taking a descriptive approach, the paper draws from existing manufacturing engineering literature on the known tasks and functions of manufacturing engineers. Our preliminary comparative case study suggests that, at least prescriptively, the tasks and functions of manufacturing engineering in Europe, while containing important differences, are largely similar to what is found in Japan. This finding contrasts withwhat has been revealed in the literature regarding the largely different tasks and functions of manufacturing engineering in the U.S. and Japan. The paper concludes by outlining how the research presented in this paper may be further developed going forward.