Seru Seisan‐ an innovation of the production management Mode in Japan

Summary

Seru Seisan, also called “beyond lean” in many Japanese manufacturing industries, is an innovation of the production management mode in Japan. Although an increasing number of manufacturing enterprises in Japan have been adopting this strategy with great success, it is not popular among manufacturing enterprises and researchers out of Japan. This paper provides a brief introduction of Seru Seisan to promote the strategy worldwide. First, a report on the origin of Seru Seisan and an analysis on its generation background are provided. Second, the differences between Seru Seisan and the conventional cell production are shown. The characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of Seru Seisan are also investigated. A summary of the Seru modalities that appear during its evolution is presented as well. Finally, several key problems for further research on Seru Seisan are presented.

Keywords:

• Seru Seisan
• production management mode
• cell production
• management innovation
• Japanese manufacturing industries

Notes

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant: 10801110) and the Shaanxi Provincial Project of Special Foundation of Key Disciplines (Grant: 00X901).