One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese
management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one
of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.
The company received a complaint that a consumer had
bought a soapbox that was empty.
Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the
assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to
the delivery department.
For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly
line empty.
Management asked its engineers to solve the
problem.
Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an
X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to
watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure
they were not empty.
No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but
they spent whoopee amount to do so.
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company
was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications
of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution.
He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed
it at the assembly line.
He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the
fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.