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2018.06.05
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 9 The sun light is getting stronger. It is time to start taking care against heat stroke.
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Three people kept discussing although I an outside Japanese visitor was there. The person who guided me there told me that a big decision was made then there. If so, it is very prompt decision.
The walls in the corridor were all whiteboards and I saw plenty of people discussing in front of the boards. I was overwhelmed to see big decision done quickly in front of me. But taking time calmly afterwards, I thought that their way of making quick decision with the related people together is also the way which Japanese manufacturing industry was good at.
Question: I wrote that the great meeting which I saw there is what Japanese manufacture industry was good at. Do you agree with me?
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2018.05.30
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 8 Producing and selling go together. We have to think both together.
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The first surprise was that they recognize that the speed of the market change was extremely fast and that they were working accordingly. This was a surprise for me, but it was also what I could imagine.
The second surprise was that the people whose responsibility were “Create”⇒ ‟Produce”⇒‟Sell” got together in one place and made immediate decision. The gathering member was not the people in one department or not a big conference which one person spoke, and the rest people just listened. all the related people stood up and each of them had a white board marker in front of the whiteboard and created the active solution.
Question: Have you ever held a meeting that in front of the whiteboard everyone has a marker and discuss writing on the board?
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2018.05.30
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 9 The sun light is getting stronger. It is time to start taking care against heat stroke.
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Three people kept discussing although I an outside Japanese visitor was there. The person who guided me there told me that a big decision was made then there. If so, it is very prompt decision.
The walls in the corridor were all whiteboards and I saw plenty of people discussing in front of the boards. I was overwhelmed to see big decision done quickly in front of me. But taking time calmly afterwards, I thought that their way of making quick decision with the related people together is also the way which Japanese manufacturing industry was good at.
Question: I wrote that the great meeting which I saw there is what Japanese manufacture industry was good at. Do you agree with me?
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2018.05.28
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 7 “The reason why we can produce them is because there are the customers who buy them.” We sometimes forget this fact. The essay this time covers my experience about this fact.
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I said “All of you have doctorate degrees and I imagined that you are doing research in your own laboratory by yourself but you are not.”
Then their answer back was “We are not responsible only for developing products, but also for selling them. So we need to work together. It is absolutely impossible for one person to do all.”
In other words, they were responsible for doing their own tasks by exploring market needs, developing products, producing products and selling them.
There were two things that surprised me when I saw the work of the American top companies.
Question: What do you think is the two things that surprised me? Please imagine.
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2018.05.01
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 5 How previous Japanese manufacturing was done and what is the difference from present way?
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Unfortunately, however, many Japanese manufacturers currently do not recognize the true strengths that they themselves have inherently and have not made improvements and changes that make use of their strength.
Japanese people have a strong sense of responsibility for their work. And often they do Kaizen of their work without being ordered. If there are occasions that related people regardless of department and position get together, they start discussing problems or targets and often get excellent solutions. Discussion beyond department and position was a good practice of Japan.
Question: In fact, what do you think Japanese people have a tremendous strength but they are not recognized?
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2018.04.10
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 3 Last time, I wrote that the manufacturing in Japan is different from that of Europe and the United States, but what is the strength of Japan? I will talk about that this time.
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Japan is said that it lost the strength because of the digitization, which increased the modular type manufacturing and it does not require high skill to assemble which Japan was good at.
In the analogue era, Japan showed the strength in assembling the complicated products. But I think that the strongest skill of Japanese manufacturing is the power of getting ideas and motivation by getting together on shop-floor.
Question: Do you sometimes communicate freely with the people from all departments and positions in your company?
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2018.04.05
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 2 I think that Japanese way of manufacturing is different from that of Western way. This time, I will write about it.
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Production of one product always involves all departments of the company. It is unlikely that you do everything from planning to sales, production, delivery, and payment collection by yourself.
If the people from all the departments relating a product get together on production shop floor and start talking about it, I am sure that you will get many excellent ideas. The people from marketing, design, sales, purchase, production, inspection and delivery department get together. The ideas will support the management of the company. This unique approach by Japanese companies is bottom up approach and very different from the Western top down approach.
Question: Does your company have opportunities for people in various departments to talk about products together?
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2018.03.30
The strong intrinsic which Japanese manufacturing industry has 1 I have written about “Change in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry”. From this issue, I start writing about “The strong intrinsic which Japanese production industry has”.
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I have worked as Kaizen consultant so far and I would like to introduce what happens on shop floor. As my title is Kaizen consultant, the presidents who use me expect to improve the work efficiency and product quality by applying Kaizen technic on shop-floor.
However, in addition to the improvement of work efficiency and product quality, development of new products or new markets often occurs. But as I have no experience or knowledge in developing new products or marketing, it is certain that the result is not brought by my guidance.
I do Kaizen on shop-floor wearing the work uniform of the plant. The important point is that there are always the president and other top people from design, sales, marketing, engineering and so on. All of us do Kaizen on shop-floor together and in the process of this activity, there may be the clue to the development of new products and new market.
Question: Have you ever experienced that super ideas came out while all the people are doing kaizen and chatting on site?
P.S. I received the title “Advanced Technology Meister FY2017” from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. I am happy.
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2018.03.19
Change in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry. 8 What should we do against various changes?
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By my observation, these changes are not temporary, and it is the result of changes in the business environment. Management must start fighting against these changes. Managers need to abandon their successful experiences so far and start their management reform with the intention of reviewing everything from scratch. Their future is not on the extension of the past experiences.
Then, how can we improve our production management? Is there a way of improving our production way without staying in the conventional way of our Kaizen or improvement?
Looking at the media reports, there are plenty of pessimistic information about Japanese production industry.
Question What kind of Kaizen do we need?
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2018.03.09
Change in the world and the problems with Japanese manufacturing industry. 7 Last time, I wrote about what is coming in America. What is happening in Japan?
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Mr. Kentaro Ohyama, the president of Iris Ohyama Inc. named the coming era as “User in”. The era of “Market in” is going away and we have to face the customer more directly. To have the ability to respond the customers’ requests which are very different each other is becoming more important.
And recently, information technology such as AI(Artificial Intelligence) has advanced very rapidly. In addition to AI a variety of new information technologies such as IoT and Big Data processing, or new manufacturing technologies like 3D printers are born, it is also important to have the technical ability to respond them immediately if necessary.
In the era of mass customization and user in, we must have the wisdom and technology to use and develop the essence of these innovative information and manufacturing technology.
But it is said that Japan has been very behind America and Europe in the field of the total information technology like Industry 4,0.
Question Do you also think that Japan is behind?