This is the original Ford Motor Company technical report issued January 1992. Subsequently it was reprinted in a version edited for public distribution, which was titled "Design and Manufacturing Methodologies: A Comparison of American and Japanese Developments," [TIPP Working Paper No. 92:9, March 23, 1992] The report is a description of work done by Warfield and Roxana Cardenas for Ford Research Laboratories, Dearborn, Michigan. The research project was supervised by Dr. Scott M. Staley engineer at the Research Lab. The aim of the project was to "engage Ford Motor Company with a new process that can be gradually installed through substitution in Ford's present Process Improvement Process". In this report, Japanese management and manufacturing methods are examined and compared with John Warfield's Interactive Management process, with the recommendation that in spite of the success of the Japanese management tools, Warfield's IM process was superior and should replace other methods. The technical report was distributed to Ford Motor Company personnel, and was the forerunner for a subsequent long-term major contract with Ford Motor Company which resulted in the introduction of Interactive Management Workshops over the ensuing five year period.

Shortly after submitting the contract report to Ford, Warfield revised the text for a general audience, giving it a new title and a new preface, removing specific references to Ford activities and personnel, etc. The revision was printed as the IASIS report "Comparing Interactive Management with Methods Widely Used in Japan"(February 1992), and later published as a TIPP Working Paper " Design and Manufacturing Methodologies: A Comparison of American and Japanese Developments" (March 1992). Also, the revised report was incorporated into the IM Handbook as "Chapter 14: Comparing IM with Methods Widely Used in Japan" published by Iowa State University Press in 1994. Warfield has used four different titles on 5 different occasions for the same paper, which began in 1992 as a research report, was published in 1994 as a book chapter, and adapted in 1995 for a lecture.

NOTE: (Prof. A. Roxana Cardenas of ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico was officially a research team member, working with Warfield on the FORD contract. For this reason she is listed as co-author with Warfield on the title page of the official Final Report which was printed for internal distribution at Ford Motor Company. Although Roxana did a lot of important work which contributed to the project's success, she did not do any of the actual writing of this final report. Warfield wrote it, as a part of his share of the contract work.

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