EPISODEINTERVIEW
06

There's no such thing as magic. Everyone must band together and head in the same direction.

Kanto Branch
Kamisu Office
Chief Leader

HIROYUKI HARA

HIROYUKI

HARA

We all worked together to turn around a workplace known as being a storehouse for trouble.

I work in production and quality control for the manufacture of fluororesins within a plant of one of our customers. I have two thoughts. One is the ability to produce the best products in the world at a stable level in terms of quality, and the other is creating a safe work environment where everyone is able to perform their jobs without injury. Fluororesins are an intermediate material that is used in cars and various other products all around the world. The ideal result is the continuous creation of high-quality products. We've been able to achieve stable production to the extent where we've received commendations for it, but to be honest the location where I was first assigned was a problem workplace, such that it had gained the reputation of being a "storehouse for trouble". We're talking about operational mistakes and faulty equipment. Even though the equipment is the same as it is now, those problems occurred repeatedly. At one point, when a quality-related accident necessitated the repayment of a large sum of money, our workplace that had been enduring so many hardships used this event as an opportunity to begin working towards eliminating the various problems we faced. When we did so, the employees joined in a common cause and worked together to improve the situation.

HIROYUKI

HARA

Paying attention to and showing concern for one another. We learned the importance of this as a team.

From that point onward, the people on our team found a powerful new enthusiasm. Having everyone heading in the same direction is very important. This is everything. Not being passive, but rather working from a standpoint of doing things ourselves. This allows us to build up successful experiences in actually making our site a better place. And when we do that, everyone becomes more confident, the characteristics of the workplace change, and we become able to obtain winning results that show superior safety and quality and production improvements. The results of our efforts are stable operations. There's nothing magic about it. Paying attention to and showing concern for one another, we can advance our work each day with a simple and honest approach. The result of everyone realizing the importance of this is the creation of what we have today.

HIROYUKI

HARA

I want to create better products, even by just a little bit more. And I want to reinforce this thinking among all team members.

A customer from an American manufacturer gave the fluororesin products produced by the Kashima location a "Gold" rating, and I heard that they were saying that they preferred the products from Kashima to the ones that they were producing locally in the US. Whenever there are times when I hear stories like these, I get the feeling that we are truly contributing to society, and it makes me very happy. At first I felt a great burden from the idea of going beyond expectations, but now I understand the pride that comes from building on this concept each day. However, trust is something that can vanish in an instant. I am always a little uneasy throughout my work. Thanks to the excellent support of my colleagues, I've been able to continue for 10 consecutive years without a major incident. In addition, even in the case where we experienced some equipment trouble for a short time that could not be addressed by the equipment manufacturer, as a team we generated some unique ideas to implement a solution, and were able to transition with no incidents occurring. The basis of all this is my desire to create better products, even by just a little bit more. In the future, I want to continue to work as a team with my colleagues to do our best.