Japan's building industry: The new model

Japan's big five general contractors - Kajima, Obayahi, Taisei, Takenaka and Shimizu - have developed efficient production systems for their construction site work. Earlier studies show that this has been achieved by applying a very standardized approach. Yet the Japanese building industry undertakes extensive research and development, the application of which could reasonably be expected to disrupt the efficient construction-site production systems. This paper describes a study undertaken in mid-1991 that began by exploring the relationship between the research institutes and the mainstream project work of the big five. This led to a review of established theories about the way that innovation takes place which in turn directed the study towards the interaction between the big five and their environments. Two major changes in these environments are currently under way. The first is growing demands by the big five's customers for higher standards and more fashionable design. The second is a serious labour shortage in the Japanese building industry. The big five have reacted in different ways to these two major environmental changes. This discovery finally led the study into a concern with the models that managers use in understanding their work. The paper suggest that a new model, based on using the human nervous system as a metaphor, is needed in order to understand the behaviour of the big five. It is also proposed that such a model will help in designing appropriate organizations for the big five as they face and seek to influence the rapid changes now resulting from the ambitions of Japan's increasingly affluent society.