My personal motto is "tender care makes up half of every one of our products!" I’m not joking, either. For over a decade, this motto, along with a photograph of me, has been on the wall by the entrance to the manufacturing building. I’m now the Assistant Manager of Section 1 of the Kyoto Production Department, overseeing the whole section, but for about 20 years I was an operator making polishing pads for the silicon wafers that become the substrates of semiconductors. I think of this "tender care" as being reflected in the quality of our pads, the fact that our products are made paying close attention to our customers and their needs, and that they are convenient, easy to use, and dependable. Tender care is the product of our deep attentiveness to and understanding of our customers. Focusing on putting tender care into our products is vital to improving quality and value.
Our polishing pads are used extensively in many different places. They involve nano-level technologies, and customers trust them for their quality. Section 1 handles the processes before the cutting of polishing pads. So I tell our field staff that even though customers never see polishing pads in the state and shape they’re in when our section is working on them, we need to apply our technical strengths as we perform manufacturing while keeping in mind the customers that will eventually use our products.

I’m seldom directly involved in manufacturing operations now, but I’m busy maintaining a work environment that places safety first, storing and managing dangerous articles, and issuing requests and engaging in negotiations regarding equipment outages and sudden production changes. That said, part of our production floor uses a three-shift structure, so I’m always ready to go out onto the floor if the need arises, such as if we find ourselves shorthanded.
The Production Division has three main visions: teamwork, self-reliance, and fueling our future. I pay particularly close attention to teamwork as I do my duties. Manufacturing isn’t something you can do entirely on your own. You need to coordinate with others in the field, staff members, and other divisions. Each has their own role to play, and by doing so, I believe, we can continue to meet our customers’ quality expectations. Self-reliance doesn’t just mean pointing out issues that you discover, but also swiftly working to resolve those problems yourself. For example, even if something is within the operation scope of another department, if the production team can do it themselves, they will. I believe that putting that vision into action fuels our future.

We also have the key concepts of "plan implementation" and "learning from failure" in our manufacturing policies. These refer to taking on challenges without fearing failure and creating and implementing solid plans. The worst thing is to do nothing at all. That’s why we always strive to be proactive. There is no future potential in merely maintaining the status quo! Even if, for example, you invest in new equipment but you don’t end up seeing the production growth you’d hoped for, it is still better than not doing that, because you can just use this failure to provide insights for your future endeavors. You won’t be blamed for it. You need to actively make proposals from the field. Since becoming an assistant manager, I’ve been going on more business trips to the sites of raw material manufacturers, and I’ve become even more strongly focused on bringing back any useful information or techniques that we could use in our own production or internal proposals.

In manufacturing, safety comes first. Being dedicated to quality is also important, so I’ve created posters and put them up on the walls of our manufacturing building to raise awareness among field staff. When someone pointed out issues of workers not being neatly attired, I wanted to use that issue to also improve the safety-mindedness of staff, so I made and put up posters about "proper factory fashion." Even slight sloppiness in work attire can result in major accidents, and I think that being properly dressed for work leads to safer work and contributes to higher quality. Of course, I do whatever I can in the manufacturing area, but even outside that area, I thought that this was something I could do for the company.