1992

The June 1992 opening of a new R&D facility in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo marked another milestone in the Panasonic Group's quest for an even broader base of electronics technologies. The Information and Communication Systems Center united research, development, production, sales and maintenance organizations for information and communication related system products under a single roof, and provided a place for Panasonic staff and customers to work together in the design and development of advanced systems.
Parallel unification of production and sales was also taking place in the consumer products arena. In 1990, the company established a market-oriented total management system (MTM) to enable factories to respond swiftly to market changes, and reorganized the management of Matsushita LEC companies, which support wholesale operations, and enhance marketing and distribution systems. From April to August of 1992, the National Retail Store Association was restructured to support local-area marketing campaigns, and renamed "National MAST."
Changes in labor practices were also taking place. In 1990, Tanii announced a project to reduce the average annual workload per employee to 1,800 hours, without compromising the quality of Panasonic products or customer satisfaction. A report on the project was completed in 1992, and implementation began in earnest in April 1993.