The Line and Staff Organization at the Time of Establishment of Mass-Production

Katafuchi Takashi

doi:10.20750/jjals.3.0_1

It is well known that Japanese firms have quality improvement activities. It is important for the study of these activities to analyze the line and staff organization. The overall purpose of this paper is to investigate task sharing and the relationship between the Quality Assurance Department, the Inspection Department, and the shop floors, as well as the authority and responsibilities of supervisors and manual workers. This analysis is based on the examination of “The Toyota Explanatory Report of Quality Control, ” which received the 1965 Deming Prize. Some significant facts discovered in this analysis are as follows: First, most tasks about inspection were transferred from Honsya management to the Honsya plant and the Motomachi plant. This means that the inspection had been clearly divided into inspection tasks and inspection control, and that management transferred most inspection tasks and some inspection control to the factory floors. Secondly, Toyota corp. had changed the line and staff organization so that the technical staff in the plant would become responsible for solving most quality problems. Thirdly, rank and file employees and foremen did not have the authority and responsibility for examining defects and taking action.

The Line and Staff Organization at the Time of Establishment of Mass-Production

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