Robologix robotics simulator. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: robotics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: robotics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Robotics at IIT Kharagpur (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Factory Automation with industrial robots for metal die casting in foundry industry, robotics in metal manufacturing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is an important story from the Japan Times. It’s a good read. Check it out!

via Why Japan’s factories, jobs aren’t coming back despite the weak yen | The Japan Times.

There are significant parallels here for the Eurozone and the UK.

I remember well visiting a factory in Japan in the 1970s and my manufacturing colleague asked me to spot the differences from our UK factory. He responded there’s no difference, just the short-term thinking of Western management – we were part of a US multi-national, driven by quarterly earnings announcements.

Some years later, my applied doctorate was focused on Japan’s cost reduction strategies, like Target Costing.

However, I soon learned that there was an enormous difference between Japan’s major exporting companies, driven by innovation, and the rest of the economy.

Much of Japan’s economy, especially the service sector is heavily protected from effective competition. In this respect, it is similar to Europe.

Ultimately, it is best to open up to global competition but armed with an effective industry strategy, and a plan to improve worker productivity.

So why are Europe’s political classes, including the European Commission ignoring Best Practice?

Thoughts?