Oh, Yes, I remember...I worked at Intel at the time...KANBAN...
The KANBAN actually works pretty well especially today when you can track order status on-line all the way through to supply chain. Our company didn't do manufacturing on the same scale as Inetl, but the just-in-time process did save us lots of money on inventory costs.
The one Japanese inport from those years that IMHO just didn't translate well into 'American' was the Quality Circles. We used to call them what they were... Circle Jerks. I never saw even one productivity improvement come out of any of them.