Gunyung Lee - Böcker

This book deals with the systems of cost reduction that originated in Japan. These are mostly new systems that did not exist in western practices before they were utilized in Japan. The book also presents the Japanese ways of carrying out the globally popular cost reduction practices.(1) It describes the strategic cost management conducted by top management through alliances between companies and/or between government and industry.(2) It shows the functional cost reduction systems along the various phases of the product life cycle, as follows: R&D → Product development → Manufacturing → Administration and indirect operations(3) It conducts some humanistic or behavioral aspects of Japanese cost reduction systems.

This book provides critical information on a wide selection of cases and theories that detail reforms and innovations in Japanese companies, in their decade-long struggle to recover from the 1991 bubble burst. It examines the Japanese concept of business value, business restructuring, organizational redesign and new business models.The book is unique in that the technique and models described are all originally developed in Japan. It will serve as a useful reference source for companies looking for ways to rejuvenate their businesses.

Today's business environment is characterized by hypercompetition and the development of the Internet. Fierce competition between suppliers and the availability of abundant information have caused a shift in bargaining power from producers/suppliers to buyers and consumers. Consequently, Business Process Management (BPM) — i.e. management tool to optimize and control operations flows by viewing the transactions within and outside corporations as processes, with the focus on speedily meeting customers' needs — has emerged as a popular management framework.However, recent research on BPM has put too much emphasis on information sharing and the visualization of business processes using IT innovations. This book argues that BPM must be linked with existing management tools. Based on survey results of Japanese and Korean companies' BPM practices, the book demonstrates how to build BPM as a holistic management model by addressing the importance of BPM views, the effectiveness of its approach, and the latest research trends.