・Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota Motor Corporation, Vice Chairman and Representative Director
"Monozukuri: My approach to manufacturing"

・Barbara B. Flynn, Indiana University, Professor
"Emerging Issues in Supply Chain Management Research in the 2010s"

・Takahiro Fujimoto, University of Tokyo, Professor
"Japanese Manufacturing System 2011 - Its Capability and Challenges"

・Hirofumi Matsuo, Kobe University, Professor
"Research Issues in Operations Management for Semiconductor Manufacturers"

Abstract:
Manufacturing companies aim to delight customers by offering quality products at a reasonable price, thus fulfilling their mission of performing a valuable role in society, or, in a word, monozukuri. My presentation will cover trends in auto manufacturing as well as future prospects for the industry. In addition, I will introduce the system of plant management that I implemented during my years as General Manager of the Motomachi Plant. Further, during my service as Senior Managing Director, Executive Vice President, and President, to cope with a changing business environment of increasingly severe international competition, we promoted a four-in-one team approach with engineering,　production engineering, purchasing, and suppliers to boost international competitiveness in cost and quality.　I hope that you will find this information of some use in your current efforts.

Biography:
Katsuaki Watanabe was born February 13, 1942. He earned a degree in economics from Keio University and joined Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) upon graduating in 1964.

Mr. Watanabe has gained experience in a broad range of activities at TMC,primarily in corporate planning, administrative affairs, public affairs and purchasing. In 1988, Mr. Watanbe became general manager of the Secretarial Division, and in 1989, became general manager of the Corporate Planning Division.

Mr. Watanabe was appointed to director in September 1992, and he became a managing director in June 1997. In June 1999, he was appointed a senior managing director, overseeing business planning and purchasing. In June 2001, Mr. Watanabe became an executive vice president and representative director. Mr. Watanabe was president of TMC from June 2005 until June 2009, when he assumed the role of vice chairman.

Key non-TMC posts
Vice chairman, Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) (May 2009-)

Awards and citations
Medal with Blue Ribbon, Japan (November 2009)

Abstract:
As supply chains have become global, many new issues have emerged. In addition to presenting challenges to supply chain managers, these issues present exciting opportunities for cutting edge research. This presentation will focus on emerging opportunities for supply chain management research, including emergency response and humanitarian supply chains, supply chain quality and strategies for dealing with product recalls, green supply chains and developing and maintaining effective global supply chain relationships. Research questions will be posed and discussed in the context of emerging methodologies for empirical research.

Biography:
Barbara Flynn is Richard M. and Myra Louise Buskirk Professor of Manufacturing Management and Director, Center for International Business Education and Research at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Before joining IU, she was a faculty member of Department of Quantitative Business Analysis at Louisiana State University, Management Department at Iowa State University, and Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. She received her bachelor degree in Psychology from Ripon College, her MBA degree in operations management and managerial economics from Marquette University, and her DBA degree in Operations Management from Indiana University.

She was the Editor-in-chief of Quality Management Journal (1997-2007) and Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education (2001-2007),.and currently serves as Associate Editor of Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, and Journal of Supply Chain Management, Area Editor of Production and Operations Management, and an editorial review board member of Benchmarking for Quality Management and Technology, International Journal of Applied Quality Management, International Journal of Quality Science, and Infrastructure/Systems Interfaces Journal, an editorial oversight board member of Operations Management Research, an editorial advisory board member of International Journal of Quality Science, and an international advisory board member of JOMS. She also served as P/OM Division Chair of Academy of Management and President of Decision Sciences Institute.

She engages in large-scale empirical research in manufacturing management, ranging from human resource management, quality management, JIT/lean production, technology management, operations strategy, new product development, supply chain management, and sustainable operations to different performance measures, based on data collected from manufacturers in 12 countries. She has been leading this research collaboration by combining a rigorous methodology and strong theoretical foundation with examination of practical problems that are important to those manufactures. While publishing papers on high-quality journals in the POM area, she has delivered lots of presentations and keynote speeches on her accomplishments at various conferences all over the world.

Abstract:
Based on the framework of design-based comparative advantage, in which dynamic fit between organizational capabilities on manufacturing sites and architectures of products and processes affect competitiveness of the sites and industries, this presentation describes and analyzes various challenges of the Japanese manufacturing industry, including recessions, globalization, emerging economies, product complexity, and the earthquake.

Biography:
Takahiro (Taka) Fujimoto is a professor, Faculty of Economics at University of Tokyo, Executive Director of Manufacturing Management Research Center (MMRC). He is also Faculty Fellow of Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Senior Research Associate at Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology and operations management. Fujimoto graduated from Tokyo University and joined Mitsubishi Research Institute in 1979. He received doctoral degree from Harvard Business School in 1989. Fujimoto’s main publications in English include: Competing to Be Really, REALLY Good (2007), The Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota (1999) and Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry (1991) with Kim B. Clark.

Abstract:
The semiconductor manufacturing is uniquely characterized by the fast revolution of its basic technology, rapid and continual expansion of its global market, and extremely high fixed costs in facility, equipment and engineers. These fast moving and capital intensive nature requires a more integrative and flexible approach, and thus the development of a new manufacturing management paradigm different from the conventional Japanese "monozukuri" principle. In this talk, we shall review the industry structure and past OM research, and present new research agendas that the JOMSA research community need to address.

Biography:
Hirofumi Matsuo is Professor of Operations Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University. In the U.S., he was a faculty member of the Department of Management at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 to 1999, and held Fred H. Moore Professorship in international management. He received his bachelor and master degrees in applied mathematics and physics from Kyoto University, Japan, and his Ph.D. in management from MIT in 1984.

He is currently the Editor-in-chief of JOMS (the Journal of Japanese Operations Management and Strategy), a Department Editor of International Commerce Review, and an editorial review board member of Production and Operations Management. He served as an associate editor of Management Science, Operations Research, and Manufacturing and Service Operations Management.

He studies supply chain coordination in the high technology and grocery industries. Research topics include: supply chain strategy and demand management to match productive capacity with demand for high technology firms; marketing and supply chain integration; flexibility and adaptability; production planning, scheduling, and control. His research projects and consulting activities have addressed manufacturing and supply chain management problems at many U.S. and Japanese manufacturing companies.

Plenary Speaker