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"Through solid and fair corporate activities, we will sincerely address the needs of our customers, the happiness of our employees, the expectations of our shareholders, and the development of industry and society".

This is the corporate philosophy of Yamada Corporation (hereafter "Yamada"). That is, as a Japanese pump manufacturer, Yamada sees it important to make contributions to customers, employees, shareholders, and in the long run, the whole society itself through pneumatic pump manufacturing business!

When it comes to the production site and warehouse, the focus is particularly on the customers and employees. That is, efforts to increase production efficiency and product consistency should be always made to satisfy customers. Or it is very important for the corporate to ensure security for those working in the factory and warehouse. To follow our mottos mentioned above, so-called "self-inspection-patrol" for KAIZEN is conducted once a month!

KAIZEN is a Japanese term that literally means 'improvement'. For manufacturing industries in general, the objective of this Kaizen is the improvement of productivity, production stability or safety. More specifically, in Kaizen activities, every employee is supposed to gradually and continuously improve their production sites or workplaces by reviewing their environments, eliminating some potential issues if there is any, or scrutinising some alternative ways to avoid mistakes or make work faster. The key point here is that this should be a sustainable activity done from the employees' own will, and not an activity done due to the command or direction from the top management.

As stated earlier, Yamada also conducts the Kaizen activities with the objectives stipulated above by having self-inspection patrols monthly. These things are carried out by members from different departments. That is, several personnels from several different departments are invited to join the patrols, - though they are from departments only within the factory and the warehouse because otherwise they would not be very familiar with the whole production line or the inventory management. These different participants are supposed to work as inspectors and are allocated to different sites or phases in the factory and the warehouse. For example, someone from the Production Planning Department is assigned to see how the assembly line is, and so on. By having a certain process observed by a third-party, a certain potential problem can be more easily detected than the one that is usually involved in the process, - those who are in charge of the process are sometimes so accustomed to the environments that they tend to be blind to potential issues.

The inspections are thoroughly implemented. The inspectors are observing small details such as whether the torque of a ratchet wrench used for pump-assembling processes is properly adjusted, or whether drums are safely stored in the production site, and so on.

The inspectors are checking the torque adjustment of a ratchet wrench.

After the patrols are done, there are always discussions between the inspectors and the people belonging to each production phase or inventory managing team to exchange opinions of what were discovered from the inspections and what to do to improve the work efficiency or how to remove root causes.

Having a discussion after the inspection to exchange opinions

Yamada believes repeating those KAIZEN activities is one of the indispensable corporate activities! Those activities will ensure consistent quality products, increase production efficiency for smoother shipping arrangement and delivery, and will consequently please customers all over the world!! Also, those events will create secure and worry-free work environments for the employees! Eventually, those KAIZEN approaches will contribute to the development of industry and society!!

Contact us for more information about YAMADA.