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ISOWA NEWS LETTER
2018/3 Vol.107
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The ISOWA NEWS LETTER is a newsletter for the benefit
of special customers only.
Each month we bring you information about our company
and its products – information you won’t find on our home page
or in our catalogs.
We hope the ISOWA NEWS LETTER will help you feel closer to us.
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1├ ISOWA Open House
2├ Aim toward having the best corporate culture in the US from President Isowa’s Blog, ISOWA DIARY
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Hello to you all, wherever you are around the world!
I am Taka of the Export Department.
More than two years have passed since I was assigned
to the Southeast Asia region, and time seems to have flown. One of
the things that surprised me when I took up this appointment was the
state of the traffic, and above all, the traffic jams that one experiences
when traveling by car. This is what prompted me to tell you about the
state of traffic in Japan in this article.
Japan is made up of 47 administrative regions. According to figures
from the Police Headquarters, Traffic Department, Traffic Planning Division
for the year beginning in January, Aichi Prefecture, where the ISOWA head
office is located, unfortunately has the most automobile accidents (35,555)
in the entire country as at November 30, 2017. This lamentable situation
has remained the same for the past 15 years. In second place is Osaka
Prefecture with 32,455 accidents, followed by Fukuoka Prefecture with 31,584.
In addition to ISOWA, Aichi Prefecture is home to the world-famous
Toyota Motor Corporation, and the fact that it has the highest level
of vehicle ownership in the country has also been identified as a reason
for the prefecture having a high number of accidents in comparison to
other prefectures. According to the findings of the Automobile Inspection
& Registration Information Association, as at the end of October 2017,
there were 4,163,007 vehicles owned in Aichi Prefecture, 960,000 (23%)
More than Saitama Prefecture, which held the number two spot with
3,203,539 vehicles.
In third place was the Tokyo Metropolitan area, with 3,169,550 vehicles.
What’s more, when the populations of the prefectures in question
are compared, Aichi Prefecture has 7.5 million people (the fourth largest
in the Japan), while Saitama has 7.3 million (the fifth highest, and 2.7% less),
so it could be said that Aichi has more vehicles per person. For reference,
Osaka Prefecture, with the second-highest number of vehicle accidents,
has a population of approximately 8.8 million people (the second highest
in the country), and Fukuoka Prefecture, with the third-highest number
of accidents, approximately 5.1 million (the ninth most populous).
The above would suggest that the traffic accident rate in Saitama Prefecture
would be the second worst in the country, but in fact that is not the case.
As of November last year, the traffic accident rate in Saitama Prefecture
was ranked eighth-worst in Japan (according to the Traffic Planning Division
mentioned above). In other words, a high rate of vehicle ownership does
not necessary equate to a high incidence of accidents (incidentally,
Osaka ranks second-worst for its number of traffic accidents and sixth
in vehicle ownership, with Fukuoka placing third worst for traffic accidents
and seventh in terms of vehicles owned).
These facts might lead people to think that Aichi Prefecture has
more accidents than Saitama Prefecture because of its higher
population density. As you might imagine, the Tokyo metropolitan area
has the highest population density in Japan, at 6,175 people per square
kilometer (Teikoku Shoin), followed by Osaka Prefecture at 4,651 people,
with Aichi Prefecture coming in fifth with 1,456 people and Saitama Prefecture
fourth at 1,934, so it would seem incorrect to state categorically that high
population goes hand-in-hand with a high incidence of traffic accidents
(Fukuoka has the seventh-highest population density in the country).
In my search for the reason that Aichi has such a high number of accidents
I have touched on vehicle ownership numbers, population, and population
density, but none of this data produced a clear conclusion. This was
actually an incredibly significant theme that has actually been addressed in
a university paper! I would be delighted if, as you travel to ISOWA in your cars,
you would take a moment to remember the courageous salesman who took
on the challenge of filling this space with an account of this awful problem.
Lastly, please remember to keep safety first, whether you are driving a car
or operating or maintaining a corrugated machinery.
And now, let’s turn to Vol. 107 of the ISOWA NEWS LETTER.
We hope you like this edition.
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ISOWA Open House
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Hello! I’m Nagisa Inui from the Osaka Domestic Sales Department.
In this issue of the ISOWA NEWS LETTER, I would like to talk about the
Open House event that was held in November last year. 211 people from
106 companies visited us for the two-day period over the 29th and 30th of
November, and I would like to thank them for taking time out from their
busy end-of-month schedule to do so.
Continuing from last year, the concept behind this Open House was,
“Human-Friendly and KIKAI-Friendly.”
◎ Human-Friendly
We reduced the burden imposed on customers who use our machines,
acting out of a desire to have them work safely and return home quickly
to their loving families.
◎ KIKAI-Friendly
“Machine” and “Opportunity.”
Firstly, it means “gentle on machines.”
This indicates not only raising the machine specifications but also reducing loads
on the machine and improving its productivity.
Secondly, it means “gentle on opportunities.”
In this, we express our hopes of eliminating lost opportunities.
*Please inquire with the sales team for details.
*Pictures of the day are available for viewing here
http://h-isowa.blogspot.jp/2017/12/open-house-2017.html
After the Open House had finished, we received kind messages from many
of the people who had visited, which filled all of us at ISOWA with gratitude
and provided encouragement for the future. Now I would like to reflect on
the 2017 Open House, and introduce some of the thoughts of those involved.
◎ Sales M.T (Project leader)
With this Open House I was absolutely determined to clearly define
my objective of conveying to our customers exactly what it was that we
wanted to tell them, and then to communicate that in an easy-to-understand
manner.
The most difficult part was the presentation on the Corrugator Production Controller.
Initially the only thing I could come up with as a presentation was to
explain each device and monitor and compare them with previous machines,
which was simply a one-way explanation from us, the manufacturer, and to
be honest wasn’t very interesting. The turning point came when I thought
about what we could contribute in situations when our customers found
themselves in trouble. That really woke me up! From that point on,
the Corrugator Production Controller development team grew ever more
enthusiastic, with the end result being a presentation that included a video
of “reenactments by ISOWA people.
” It was full of our hopes and ideas, and very easy to understand,
and as such was well received both inside and outside the company.
More than anything I was delighted that everyone involved seemed to
enjoy taking the project forward.
We also provided a range of exhibits at each booth.
・IBIS Flexo Folder Gluer
・CF60 Single Facer
・CDL5 Double Facer
・After Sales Service
・Retrofitting
Every team came up with readily comprehensible themes that were educational
for both customers and for people working at ISOWA.
For example, when the staff at the Retrofitting booth held up the
“Mohican Brush” while talking about ISOWA’s retrofitting products and
services, the response was so good that in some cases we entered on-the-spot
negotiations regarding the products. Through this Open House I was able to
interact with ISOWA people that I seldom see in the course of our daily work,
and I feel that in expanding the scope of our work this kind of exchange is a
huge asset.
In addition to the products that I have introduced here, we will pursue
comprehensive sales activities that provide useful suggestions and information,
focusing more on assisting customers with the difficulties that they face daily.
◎ Administration N.H (Master of ceremonies)
Since I had no idea what an Open House was, I had reservations when I
was invited to be MC, but I was extremely pleased at the opportunity to take on
such a huge role despite my status as a new employee.
In the period leading up to the day of the Open House, I read through
the MC script and met with engineering personnel for paper run demonstrations,
cooperating with many more experienced ISOWA people as we moved
forward with the project. Initially I had thought that it was important for an MC
to speak clearly, in a loud voice that guests can hear easily. However, as we
went through practice and rehearsals I saw how my superiors and seniors
always looked at things from the customer’s viewpoint, and thought about the
details of movements and the way things would flow on the day, seeing
first-hand how they sought to perfect every letter and phrase of every sentence.
This brought home how much responsibility I had in representing everybody
at ISOWA in getting up in front of our guests and directing the course of
proceedings, and I was determined to succeed.
I realized that to achieve this goal I had to do more than simply read the
script without making any mistakes; I had to convey what I felt, no matter
how small the details. For me, the time spent discussing how things should be,
with people respecting my opinion despite my lack of knowledge and experience,
allowed me to understand that we were engaged in an “ALL ISOWA” effort with
the single objective of making the Open House a success.
It’s often said that perfection is eighty percent planning, and this Open House
really made that clear. I would very much like to keep fresh the importance
of the daily repetitions needed to achieve the perfect performance when it really
counts.
The experience of standing in front of so many of our customers for the first time
has also improved my motivation in my everyday work. I hope to always remember
that every job is connected to the customer.
◎ Electronic Engineering M.S (Corrugator Production Controller Presentation Supervisor)
I supervised the iEM2 presentation.
When I tried counting just how many people were involved, I found that
there were 24 engaged in shooting the five-minute reenactment video
used in the presentation, and 37 involved in the project overall. With the
cooperation of a great many people, the iEM2 presentation was completed.
Corrugator Production Controller is intended to control machinery, so it is
difficult to explain just how they are useful in production, and we had an
extremely tough time explaining the new functionality in a way that
would be easy to understand. In the end, we put everything together
again centering on what would be “kind” for our customers, using large
lettering and keeping things concise rather than attempting to relate
everything in text. We also made a reenactment video with ISOWA
people to explain the new functions in a more readily comprehensible manner.
The video was shot in the ISOWA plant and in the business offices of our
subcontractors.
To create the feel of a corrugated paper plant we thought up a name
for a fictional corrugated company and created a logo, gave a job
description and full name to everyone appearing in the video, and made
uniforms. We also re-created the sheet storage area in the ISOWA plant
and erected temporary scaffolding made of stacked pallets, on top of which
we placed a tripod to allow us to get the exact camera angles we wanted.
For one scene we shot on multiple days, reshooting three times to get the
details we wanted. To film one scene of a person picking up the telephone
in an office we borrowed the business offices of a subcontractor with whom
we work and made calls from an outside line for the video. It seems funny now,
but we have some out-takes where office staff mistakenly picked up the phone
to answer calls we had made for filming.
Of course, the areas that are visible are important to a video, but we
also received cooperation from many people in off-screen areas that
allowed us to create a wonderful reenactment video. The key phrase for
iEM2 is “Better Recording than Memory” but the process of creating the
presentation for the Open House is something that is sure to remain in memory.
Going forward I think there will be opportunities to make similar presentations
as a company, and I intend to support those people doing the presentation
and those who are tasked with making the material.
So, how was it?
This Open House involved the gathering of a great deal of the collective wisdom
at ISOWA, thanks to which we were able to welcome many customers
to the event and make it a roaring success. I think that this was an opportunity
for many people to learn about ISOWA as it is now, and as it will be in the future.
We will continue our quest to achieve “ISOWA keeps you going -always on
the go!” with all employees working together as we move forward.
Thank you.
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Aim toward having the best corporate culture in the US
From President Isowa’s Blog, ISOWA DIARY
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I travelled to the US last week.
▼To read more about it, visit the below website
(President Isowa’s blog, ISOWA DIARY)
http://h-isowa.blogspot.jp/2017/11/aim-toward-having-best-corporate.html
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