Learning the R & D System Industrial R & D in Japan and the United States (1990) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Organization of Industrial R&D in Japan and the United States: Contrasts and Commonalities
2 The Organization of Industrial R&D in Japan and the United States: Contrasts and Commonalities
Pages 6-13
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From page 6... ...
In manufacturing companies, basic research or advanced product development is centered in a corporate laboratory; medium- or shorter-term product development is located in divisional laboratories that are tied more closely to the separate businesses of the multidivisional firm. Japanese firms have tended to locate their divisional laboratories within or beside a production facility and maintain more of their technology development at the plant level, particularly incremental process or product improvements.9 In the United States the location and relative emphasis of R&D vary greatly from firm to firm.
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From page 7... ...
industrial corporations have looked to acquisitions to diversify their businesses and technologies, Japanese firms increasingly have made their R&D organizations the centers of diversification efforts. Firms in such mature industries as shipbuilding, steel, and textiles have exhibited an especially strong drive for technological diversification to provide opportunities for the growth their core businesses can afford no longer.
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From page 8... ...
of the 15,000 scientists and engineers employed by Toshiba are working in the engineering laboratories and departments that are part of business groups where short- and medium-term research is carried out.~3 Toshiba's corporate R&D strategy is formed by the Corporate Technology Committee, which includes central laboratory directors and representatives from each business group. Each of these business group representatives has the title of Group Executive for Technology, and each is assigned as a partner to the top manager of the business group.
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From page 9... ...
9 r ; CORPORATE TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE) 1 ~ CORPORATE TECHNOLOGY STAFF - Technical Planning & Coordination Division _- Intellectual Property Division - Design Center President Ch let Esecutl ve Otticer ,' CORPORATE LARORATORIES - Research & Development Center - Advanced Research Lab - ULSI Research Center _ _ Systems ~ Software Engineering Lab _ _ Manufacturing Engineering Lab 1 FIGURE 5 Toshiba's R&D organza ion.
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From page 10... ...
In a pattern more similar to the United States, top ranking industrial researchers often will move into academic positions in private or local universities after retirement at about age 55 to Sometimes even earlier. In the United States the threat of losing key researchers means that R&D management is challenged constantly to retain the most qualified people who are, in effect, the carriers of much of the firm's intellectual property.
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From page 11... ...
firms to hire new people as a way to enter new technological fields or add specialized expertise.20 The contrast between structured and nonstructured career environments shows up in approaches to off-thejob education. In the United States, where the research university serves as an important resource for the industrial research organization, some leading companies have adopted the concept of the research sabbatical, which allows outstanding researchers to take up to a year off from their regular work to take the initiative to pursue new ideas either within their own R&D organization or at an outside university.
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From page 12... ...
Nippon Steel, for example, has instituted both a "President's Prize" to reward outstanding inventions in steel technology and a "Create Number 1 Prize" to reward outstanding achievement in basic research.23 Many in the United States have noted the paradox inherent in Japanese firms' ability to bring a product to the marketplace more quickly than their American counterparts despite their time-consuming emphasis on the team approach and consensus. American firms may make decisions quickly, but they have fallen behind in product introduction, perhaps because the rapidity of the decision-making process itself does not allow time to adapt to unforeseen changes in direction, such as in marketing or manufacturing specifications.
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From page 13... ...
They are moving to build systems for identifying and acquiring technology on a global scale.25 It is highly unlikely, given vastly different historical backgrounds and the different industrial bases which Japan and the United States are building, that there will soon be a homogenization of the patterns of R&D within industrial firms in the two countries. But in an age of increasing competition both in technology development and market position, firms on both sides of the Pacific are finding it necessary to learn from each other's strengths.
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