Performance and Practice: Examining the Machine Tool Industries of Japan and the United States

Abstract

Machine tool (MT) production is at the centre of most durable goods manufacturing and is in many ways, an indicator of a country's industrial prowess. Over the past three decades, the machine tool sectors of Japan and the United States have followed distinctly different trajectories. This paper compares and contrasts the performance and characteristics of the MT industries of both countries, with particular attention paid to several embedded differences in each country's manufacturing conditions at various levels. Once the world leader, the US MT industry is in a period of decline, despite signs of a rebound during the 1990s. Japanese MT producers continue to be among the world leaders in terms of both sales and technology, in the face of a recent domestic economic slowdown well over a decade long. The paper concludes with a discussion of the industry's future prospects. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.

Maintaining domestic production through exports: the case of Japan’s metal forming machinery sector

“…Japan's demographic challenges are well-known, the population is aging and the working age population will shrink. This is also a problem for Japan's metal cutting machinery manufacturers (see Kalafsky 2006). If Japan's advanced capital equipment manufacturers rely on precision and innovation to retain their competitive advantage, then human capital is at the center of this.…”

“…One can see that over time, the composition of total forming machinery exports has changed relatively little. As mentioned in Tsuji (2000) and Kalafsky (2006), the early and widespread adoption of CNC technologies enabled metal cutting machinery (i.e., machine tool) producers to leap to the forefront as a global leader. In this case of metal forming machinery, however, there were no product lines that leapt to the forefront, leading the export charge.…”

“…Finally, the customer service aspect of this industry cannot be overlooked. Whereas machinery manufacturers from many countries ignored this important marketing aspect, Japanese firms seized the importance of customer interaction both before and after the sale (Tsuji 2000;Kalafsky 2006).…”

“…Regardless of these somewhat small employment numbers, this capital goods sector is considered to be crucial to Japan's recent successes in manufacturing. Metalworking machinery, considered within the broader internationally-recognized category of machine tools, has been deemed integral to any economy that is involved in advanced manufacturing and certainly, any economy that intends to be involved in this sector into the foreseeable future (Graham 1993;Kalafsky 2006). A country's acumen in metalworking machinery production (either cutting or forming) and perhaps more importantly, innovation in this field, are viewed in most circles to be a barometer of its overall degree of success in the secondary sector.…”

Geographies of production in 3D: Theoretical and research implications stemming from additive manufacturing

“…1). Advanced capital machinery production, for example, tends to stay within a relatively select number of locations (Kalafsky, 2006). In essence, some signs point to the actual manufacture of these types of machinery following the same trajectories described within Vernon's (1966Vernon's ( , 1979 product life cycle framework, or, in terms of East Asia's fast followers, perhaps a 'reverse product life cycle' (Poon et al, 2006).…”