Japan had and still have for a lot of sectors a stable & integrated business process: Client – manufacture – suppliers.

This has been one of the key success factor of Japan in being capable to integrate innovation, the capability of manufacturing & the flexibility of distribution based on the complimentary relationship between internal supplies & internal demand.

For different reasons this economic model has been changing & is still changing. Japan is now applying the western model of the supply chain based on outsourcing with specialised suppliers. This change means that purchasing is becoming more important and in the Japanese companies, the role of the buyer is moving from former internal transactional role (mainly focused on internal process) to more strategic positions (including market analysis/ innnovation / total cost & value etc).

These evolutions lead to some significant changes amongst the people involved, strategies being implemented, the organisations to support & the methodologies & tools used. All the presentations have been focused on these four aspects which goes to show the importance of such topics today in the Japanese purchasing world.

The different discusssions between representatives of western companies & Japanese companies proves that on these subjects a lot of Japanese companies are on a lower maturity stage than western companies. One of the major elements is that training & evaluation of people has been recognised & developed years ago whereas in Japan this had only just started.

Involving a recognition of education at a higher level : MBA / Masters in Purchasing is not yet the case in Japan.

All the discussions seem to drive to a conclusion that it is relatively important to define in Japan a system to evaluate the competence, define the job definition, provide trainings and a way to benchmark between the different professionals … which as everybody knows is a true cultural barrier.

All these questions may be a basis for working on the future EIPM workshops.