What is ‘Keiretsu’?
Keiretsu means literally ‘system, series’.
Usually it refers to a a group of Japanese businesses that are closely linked through shareholding, etc, and form a strong corporate unit
Producing in a monozukuri environment means the whole supply-chain has an integral architecture; the whole production column supports it actively.
This vertically integrated process goes beyond the borders of the factory and stretches into suppliers- and customers companies, who cooperate from the early design stages on.
This integration of (mainly) middle and small size companies into large companies is called KEIRETSU.