Starting to raise production engineers worldwide

Our group has been setting up factories in Europe, North America, China, Indonesia and India, in response to the increases in sales outside Japan. In order to ensure the same quality of products manufactured in factories all over the world under the slogan of "Made by Hitachi", we are making various efforts that include holding meetings of global quality assurance managers, global production checks and skills contests.

In addition to the above, we started an activity to raise production engineers worldwide in fiscal 2008. In this activity, we provide training in OJT to production engineers of group companies over a period of three years at Tsuchiura Works, the mother plant, so that they learn process planning, JIT (just in time) procedures, streamlining and designing of jigs and tools. In the first year three production engineers from the group companies in Japan including TCM and four production engineers from group companies and associated companies outside Japan including Hitachi Construction Machinery (China). We will also accept six engineers for training in fiscal 2009.

We heard the opinion of four trainees from China, Indonesia and India about their training for one year. Their opinions are written below. Since all of the trainees said that they want to do more work bearing responsibility, we have decided to revise the training program to take into consideration the hopes and desires of the trainees, and their progress in the Japanese language.

This is the first time I have come to Japan. I'm impressed by the beautiful town which has so many trees. I live in a company housing. I eat out most of the time because I'm not good at cooking. At weekends I enjoy watching old Japanese films produced in the 70s and 80s. I feel some of the workplaces are rather small, but generally they are safe and pleasant. I'm impressed by how serious the employees of Hitachi Construction Machinery are towards their work. I want to particularly learn from their efficiency at work. When they face with new things such as creating a new component, they work by allocating work, and setting time limits, etc., at meetings. I am currently being trained in process planning. Although the work is the same as the work we are doing at Hitachi Construction Machinery (China), the difference is that the work covers a vast scope. During my training I noticed the fact that work rules are firmly set. I think this is a very good point. I want to learn many more good points. At the present moment, when I go back to Hitachi Construction Machinery (China), I want to raise the quality of the components and make efforts to bring about a greater awareness of safety.

I came to Japan for the first time and my impression of Japan is the same as Mr. ZHENG. I don't have any trouble over the food because the set menus at the employee cafeteria are good. Although I have a TV, I sometimes feel a bit lonely at the company housing. When I feel this way, I read a Japanese comic called "Detective Conan", which is a good way of spending time. I don't have any trouble with the work environment. I am surprised that many colleagues at the workplace have such a thorough knowledge of machining center. I'm sure this leads to a high technical capability. I think we aren't making the most of the equipment we have at Hitachi Construction Machinery (China). I am currently having training on streamlining. I'm learning how to create programs for machining and how to read and start programs, as an assistant. I want to do more work, bearing responsibility as a person in charge and acquire skills. When I get back to China, I want to tell my colleagues about the technologies and business activities in Japan, and also inform them of the Japanese way of thinking about work. I think this will help to promote a feeling of friendship between Chinese people and Japanese people.

This is my first time in Japan. I think Japanese people are very kind to strangers. I was worried that the weather here would be too cold, but I had no problem even in January and February, except when I climbed to the eighth station of Mt. Fuji, where I felt cold. I have no problems with food because I can get the ingredients I need to make Indian food and cook vegetable curry every day.I work at the semi-automatic production line. I think some places are rather small, but generally there is no problem. I think it's a good custom to do morning exercises and inform everybody of the schedule at the morning meeting. I'm also impressed that whenever a problem occurs, employees soon gather together, sort out some steps to take through an active exchange of ideas and then quickly put the measures into practice. I suppose this is possible because there are so many experienced engineers here. I'm currently getting training for process planning for large hydraulic excavators, and I'm learning welding volume calculations and other things. I want to learn about the main processes involved in production engineering such as preparation of the process for welding, plate working assembly, and machining and supplier authorization. I have already realized that the standard times in my company (Telco Construction Equipment) are longer than the times at Tsuchiura Works. I will learn more about everything to do with standard times during process planning training to try to shorten the standard times at my company.

This is also the first time I've come to Japan. My first impression of Japan was that the towns are beautiful, just like Mr. ZHENG and Mr. DING said. Only one year has past since I came here, but I've already visited lots of historical sites such as Hiroshima, Kamakura and Asakusa, which are all beautiful. My problem here in Japan is the Japanese language. I'm really quite poor at chinese characters. I couldn't apply for the internet subscription alone, and I had to ask a colleague to help me. The workplace is safe and pleasant with exclusive material handling and air conditioning. I think it's a good idea to give safety training using the KYT (danger detection training) sheet. However, I feel it is such a pity that I can't make as much progress as I'd like because of my poor communication ability. I'm doing work related to new business investment and TIPS (Tsuchiura Innovation and Inventive Production System) in streamlining training. I am learning a lot from JIT and small group activities that are part of TIPS. When I return to Hitachi Construction Machinery Indonesia, I'll tell my colleagues all about the Japanese systems so that we can use the systems at our company.

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