Industrialists, engineers and further education staff are being given the chance to learn the secrets of Japanese manufacturing efficiency first hand in a ‘learn from the best’ initiative being run jointly by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Industry Forum and the Automotive Academy.

A programme of visits is being run to take groups of industry executives and educationalists to visit some of Japan’s top flight manufacturing companies. The next visit is being planned for March.

The two week visit from Saturday March 4 to Friday March 17 2006 will give delegates access to Japanese manufacturing processes.

The visit programme has been made possible by a network of contacts made by SMMT Industry Forum director Arthur David, who formerly worked for Nissan, and forum executive co-ordinator Koji Wanaka, who was a senior official at Honda.

A group of 20 industrialists and education staff have recently returned from a pilot visit and a further group is due to leave for Japan soon.

The visits include detailed briefings by senior management at Nissan, Honda and Toyota and their major suppliers, as well as non-automotive companies such as Toshiba and Sony.