Move to a small town. Big Japanese plants were built in small towns in the Midwest and middle South in recent years, and not only for financial reasons. The Japanese perceive a willingness in those places to work hard and show corporate loyalty. "Norman, Okla., is similar to the old days in Japan," says Shiro Takemura, president of a Hitachi computer plant under construction there. "People make a lot of self-sacrifices."
Eat raw fish. Yes, your worst fears are true. If you work for the Japanese, they will make you eat raw fish. And learn some other new tricks. The Japanese like training. They send production staff to Japan to learn at their factories. The Japanese also believe that to understand their work ethic it helps to sample their culture. That's why a group of Denon Digital employees spent a day with an associate professor of Japanese in Atlanta. It included an authentic lunch. "This is the filet mignon of Japan," said Prof. Donald L. Smith, holding up a piece of raw sashimi. "This tastes like boiled fatback," said supervisor Mike Moon.
Keep your union card in your wallet. In Japan, most unions represent only companies, not entire industries, so they are weak by American standards. In the United States, the Japanese go nonunion wherever they can-so chances are you'll have to also. They like to call American employees "associates" to take some of the sting out of labor-management relations. Sanyo took a bitter walkout [in 1986] after it tried to change the seniority system at its Forrest City, Ark., TV facility .... The United Auto Workers organized the Toyota General Motors plant in Fremont, Calif., but had to agree to strict hiring controls by the company. In return, the company promised a virtual no-layoff policy. That's unusual. U.S. attorneys advise the Japanese not to promise the sort of lifetime employment they offer at home. Americans might sue if fired.
Zero your defects. The Japanese are nuts about quality control. On the line, that means "complete attention to the work the whole seven and a half hours," says Jim Burch, who works for Topy Corp., an auto wheel maker in Frankfort, Ky. Many Americans like the change. When Matsushita Electric Corp. of America bought the Motorola television plant in Franklin Park, Ill, it eliminated the conveyor belt to give workers time to do the job right. Mary Howaniec likes controlling the line with a pedal: "You can work at your own pace and not the pace of the belt," she says. Americans can and do rise to the quality challenge. The Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio, has a defect rate similar to the plants in Japan. One tip: the Japanese seem to associate 'quality with cleanliness. At the Sumitomo transmission plant in Teterboro, N.)., the last 15 minutes of a shift is "housekeeping." So sweep up.
Get out of the rut. A big Japanese complaint is that "American workers tend to do what they're told and no more," says Takeshi Kondo, senior vice president for NEC America in Texas. To counter that, Japanese plants rotate workers through many jobs, hoping that Americans will take on more responsibility. 'Workers respond favorably, saying it keeps them fresh. The only complaint at the Toyota-GM factory is that rotation requests take too long to be approved. Be flexible in what you'll do.
Talk it out. The Japanese like communication to bubble up through "quality circles," in which workers pool ideas on productivity in their departments (sometimes the old suggestion box is used). At Matsushita's television plant, the president attends each circle's presentation to management; at a recent one, a circle suggested a way to cut one step from picture-tube assembly. "The Japanese want you to have an influence on the end result," says Jim Ballengee, an employee of NEC America. It helps to be a busybody in a Japanese factory.
Lead your team. The high sense of responsibility to employees can help promotion in a Japanese company. At the Nissin Foods plant in Pennsylvania, the American office manager was reprimanded for trying to hire a secretary outside; a worker was taken off the line and sent to typing school for the job. At many plants, a worker can aspire to be a "team leader"-like a foreman but with wider responsibility. The Toyota-GM plant has no time clocks; the leaders are supposed to motivate their crews of six to eight. So be nice to your leader although some criticize the system as another name for cronyism. "The only way to get a promotion at Honda is if you're the team leader's buddy," says Ron Griffith, a wax sprayer.
Get with the 250-year plan. The Japanese like to see employees as a big, happy family. Do the morning exercises that are routine at a number of plants. Wear the company uniform-the Japanese managers will wear it, too, when they're on the factory floor. At Matsushita, new hires are shown a film about the life of founder Konosuke Matsushita, including an old clip in which he announces that the company's 250-year plan is to eliminate world poverty by producing limitless numbers of products. The film then shows Japanese employees jumping up revival style. The Toyota-GM plant has a more modest way to build group identity-employees each get $30 a year to party with colleagues. If they should happen to cook up a 250-year plan over beers, the next quality-circle meeting can take it up.
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