Online ISSN 1347-4456 Print ISSN 1347-4464

ABAS: Annals ofBusiness AdministrativeScienceVol. 1, No. 2, July 2002

ANDO, Fumie

25

The real relationship between organizational culture and organizational learning

Book Review

HELLER, Daniel A.

35

Probing a 'prepared organization': Reading Takahiro Fujimoto's The Evolution of a
Manufacturing System at Toyota, winner of the 2002 Japan Academy Prize

http://www.gbrc.jp© 2002 Global Business Research CenterAnnals of Business Administrative ScienceVol. 1, No. 2, July 2002

CHIEF EDITOR

Junjiro Shintaku

University of TokyoEDITORIAL BOARD

Makoto Abe
University of TokyoTakahiro Fujimoto University of Tokyo
Makoto Kasuya
University of Tokyo
Hotaka Katahira
University of Tokyo
Nobuo Takahashi University of Tokyo
Technical Editor: Maki Nishida, Global Business Research Center

Annals of Business Administrative Science is published quarterly in January, April,
July, and October, by Global Business Research Center, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo,
JAPAN. http://www.gbrc.jp

Annals of Business Administrative Science Vol.1, No.2 (July 2002)

Book Review

Probing a ‘Prepared Organization’: Reading Takahiro
Fujimoto’s The Evolution of a Manufacturing System atToyota, Winner of the 2002 Japan Academy Prize
Daniel A. HELLER
Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo
E-mail: danielh@grad.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Abstract: Takahiro Fujimoto’s 1999 book, The Evolution of a Manufacturing System
at Toyota, is surveyed and its contents introduced to commemorate the book having
been awarded the prestigious Japan Academy Prize for 2002.
Keyword: capability building, organizational learning, system emergence

1. Japan Academy Prizecontributions of the work and introduce its contents

Takahiro Fujimoto has been recognized as a leading

to those who may not yet be familiar with it.

authority on technology and the world automobile
industry since his landmark 1991 book, Product2. What’s Inside

Development Performance, co-authored with current

The Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota

Dean of Harvard Business School, Kim B. Clark. In

was written approximately two years after its

June 2002, Fujimoto’s latest full work, TheJapanese language counterpart. As such, the English

Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota

version contains numerous refinements and changes(1999, Oxford University Press), was awarded theas compared to the Japanese text. Most notably, theJapan Academy Prize, in the presence of Their

English version features a deeper grounding andMajesties the Emperor and the Empress of Japan. On

connection

the occasion of the book having received this highorganizational learning. The book has received

recognition, it seemed fitting to consider again thehighly positive reviews by academic journals both into

theacademicliteratureon35

Hellerperformance.

Japan and abroad. For example, Tom Roehl reviewed

The book is addressed to practitioners and a

the book for the Academy of Management Review(2000, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 439-441) and strongly

diverserecommend the work for the long-term historicalorganizational and technology management theorists

view it offers of Toyota’s rise to become a dominant

to micro and applied economists. Even researchers

player in the auto industry. Roehl also called theof developmental economics will be intrigued bywork an “important conceptual contribution…to ourFujimoto’s analysis of how Toyota engaged inunderstanding of the evolution of systems within

forward adaptation (p. 50-51) through the 1960s tofirms” (p. 439).

motivate the building up the firm’s capabilities toface

The book is divided into two major parts. Partarray

whatitof

academic

perceived

asaudiences,inevitablefromfuture

One gives an overview of how the Toyota

international competition. Such firm conduct would

manufacturing system emerged and shows why anseem to be just what infant industry policies

evolutionary framework applies. A compact andgenerally aim for.

highly readable history of the Japanese auto industry
is also included. The book’s various theoretical

3. Evolutionary Learning Capability

contributions include an informational perspective

While it is impossible to do justice to the richness of

introduced in Chapter Four, which allows for a

detail and argument found in Fujimoto’s book in justsurprisingly straightforward functional description ofa few paragraphs, a short summary of the work’s

the extremely complex system of overlapping

principal argument is presented here.

practices and techniques that make up Toyota’s

Fujimoto’s book provides an empiricallymanufacturing system.

grounded look at a classic question: What is the realPart Two elaborates on the three key pillars ofsource of lasting competence for a manufacturing

the Toyota manufacturing system: black box parts

company? In analyzing Toyota, a firm that hassupply, product development, and assembly, withpersistently outperformed its rivals for over 30 years,

chapters containing detailed functional and genetic

Fujimoto engages in the most comprehensive study

description of each. In addition, there are also two

to date in addressing this research question vis-à-vis

useful appendixes. The first briefly outlines thethis leading Japanese firm. The author’s in-depth

evolutionary perspective Fujimoto adopts in the

research of Toyota since 1979 gives him a uniquebook. The second appendix presents both anbackground from which to examine how the firm’s

overview of the practices and techniques that maketotal manufacturing system (product development,up Toyota Manufacturing System and a summary ofsupplier management, and assembly) has developed

empirical

and been exploited by the firm over an extended

findings

ontheoverallsystem’s
36

Probing a ‘Prepared Organization’
before-the-fact, learning. The higher-level problem

period of time.
The conclusion Fujimoto reaches is that, at least

solving can be viewed as opportunistic, orthrough the early 1990s, Toyota has somehow been

after-the-fact, learning. Fujimoto notes that these twoable to “know” how to handle the complex processlevels of learning have some overlap with theof system emergence and engage in organizational

concept of higher-order learning for changing

learning regardless of the circumstances the firmorganizational values and learning routines found in

faced. In order to build its manufacturing system,

Argyris and Schon (1996) and Fiol and Lyles (1985).

Toyota has needed to be able to “learn anyway”

While we would expect an intentional learning

because the system is not simply the result ofcapability to be present to a degree in any firm withrational calculation by firm management, as theleading manufacturing capabilities, it is rarer for thecompany tends to portray it and many mistakenly

higher-level learning to be present. It is rarer still fortend to believe. Fujimoto shows in fine detail thata company to posses such a capability over a period

Toyota’s total manufacturing system emerged (andof decades as Fujimoto shows Toyota has done.

continues to develop) through a multi-path processThus, returning to the classic question posed

made up not only of rational calculation, but also

above, Fujimoto argues the source of lastingpressures from environmental constraints; inspirationcompetence for a manufacturing company goesof entrepreneurial vision; unanticipated knowledge

beyondtransfers from outside the firm; and even random

manufacturing

trials. What Toyota has been able to do better than its

routinized

rivals is harness solutions that emerge through theselower-level problem solving), although both of thesevarious paths in order to build up its manufacturing

are necessary factors. On top of these twocapability.

capabilities, a firm must also posses an evolutionary
learning

Using detailed examples, Fujimoto offers apossessingacapability

learning

capability

competitive

routinizedandcompetitivecapability(i.e.,a(i.e.,superiorsuperior

higher-levelproblem solving).

theoretical framework to illustrate how Toyota has
been able to learn as it has. It involves the firm
engaging in dual-level problem solving. A lower

4. Toyota as a ‘Prepared Organization’level generates various solutions to problems that

The above discussion begs the question of what

arise in a manufacturing system. A higher level thenexactly makes up an evolutionary learning capability,selects, refines, and integrates those solutions thator what enables a firm to develop such a capability.

cannew

As Fujimoto readily admits, this line of inquiry

competitive capabilities. The lower-level problem

would require a separate systematic investigation

solving

and goes beyond the scope of his book. Nevertheless,contributecantobethedevelopment

viewedasofintentional,or37

Hellerthose that succeed in making “some informational

he does offer some initial directions.
Fujimoto describes Toyota with its evolutionary

contribution that enhances the impact of the ultimate

learning capability as a ‘prepared organization.’ Asinformation ― the one embodied in products andthe inspirational source of this phrase, Fujimoto citesdelivereda discussion with David Hounshell and the influence

investigation by Fujimoto and others into theof a Cohen and Levinthal (1994) paper titled,workings of a ‘prepared organization’ is eagerly“Fortune Favors the Prepared Firm.” Needless to say,anticipated.

tocustomers”

(p.

275).

Further

this paper title is derived from the famous quote by
the father of bacteriology, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895),

Referencesthat “fortune favors the prepared mind,” a phrase

Argyris, C., & Schon, D. A. (1996). Organizational

Pasteur is said to have coined as a retort to scientists

learning: Theory, method, and practice (Vol. 2).

who said his discovery of pasteurization was simply

Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

due to luck.

Fiol, C. M., & Lyles, M. A. (1985). Organizational

Fujimoto suggests that a source of thelearning. Academy of Management Review, 10(4),“preparedness” of Toyota may be that people atToyota

sharecertainvalues“competition-consciousness”

thatand803-813.

aCohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1994). Fortune

guide

favors the prepared firm. Management Science,decision-making. The cumulative result of the many

40(2), 227-251.

individual decisions related to manufacturing madeby shop-floor workers, supervisors, engineers, and(Received July 1, 2002; accepted July 7, 2002)

managers at Toyota is that those manufacturing
routines that are ultimately selected, retained, anddeveloped into new competitive capabilities are only38