Industry
Visiting a country for the very first time can often leave a lasting impression. That was certainly the case when Dave Saltman headed for Japan to see the Maruyama operation at first hand. He came away equally impressed with the company’s high manufacturing standards ... and not inconsiderable jet lag
everyone that I spoke to was incredibly polite.
I Arriving in a blizzard - the worst snow
storm that the capital had encountered in forty-six years - our group of Mark Dyos (Maruyama US), Jacques Shelton (DMMP Ltd) and myself hailed a taxi for the journey into downtown Tokyo. This turned out to be fairly arduous and added a few more hours to an already long journey. However, with a brave taxi driver and fearless passengers, we made it to our hotel. With bags safely dropped in the hotel
room, a late dinner was sought and this we found in a nearby business bar. The next few hours enabled us to unwind completely with a continuous stream of exquisite Asian taster dishes, local beer and hot and cold saki. Fully replenished, we made our way back to the
t’s fairly easy to explain my thoughts arriving in Tokyo for my first visit; the overwhelming impression was one of absolute cleanliness and efficiency. There was no litter, anywhere, and
hotel at 4.00am local time. However, my body clock had given up on which global timezone it was in, having travelled from Dallas the previous morning and the UK three days before that. We had been met at the airport by our
host, Takaharu Uchiyama, grandson of co- founder Ryoji Uchiyama, who had started the business of building fire extinguishers with Yasuji Maruyama in 1895. Much later that day, Takaharu took us for an afternoon whistle-stop tour of Tokyo, before treating us to an excellent evening with a specialist Tempura chef who, in front of us, delicately prepared and cooked dish after dish of fish and shellfish. The real work for me though followed the
next day, starting with a visit to the Maruyama headquarters in Tokyo to meet the export team and Takaharu’s father, Haruo Uchiyama, Chairman of the company. We then travelled by train an hour north
east of the capital to Togane, where a number of the Maruyama factories form the Chiba facility. This facility was accredited with the ISO 14001 certification in 2001. The culture in Japan is one of respect and
courtesy for others; even handing over or receiving a business card is a mini ceremony that needs to be performed correctly. This deep respect for others is clearly instilled in every working person’s ethics and it’s very apparent as to why household names such as Canon, Fuji, Honda, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Nintendo, Nissan, Sony, Toyota (and so many others) are renowned for quality. During our factory visit, guided around the various machining and assembly lines, it’s simple to understand why Japanese manufacturing is envied the world over. The attention to detail is with every
component and every process, from the basic tooling of casings to the packaged finished products ready to be shipped out.
What is impressive is that every component required in production, with the exception of the world class Walbro carburettor, is made by Maruyama, ensuring that their quality control remains in-house and fully controllable. In every building we entered there was a special notice board. On these boards, each employee must contribute a weekly improvement to their working day, whether it’s an idea for a new part, machine or simply moving their work station around to be more efficient. This helps to keep the teams empowered and, therefore, focused and help build employee/employer relationships, which, in turn, improves productivity and quality.
Within Maruyama’s business philosophy it
reads; “We believe strongly in the importance of maintaining a harmonious relationship between people and the environment. The core principle, to produce products that meet the needs of our customers. By focusing on the fundamentals of customer satisfaction, we are able to deliver products that are trusted by the users, as well as concentrating on developing new and better systems. We continue to contribute to society by providing products that are trusted, using state-of-the-art technologies that help people use precious resources, such as water, more effectively.” Aims and objectives that we would all like
to aspire to, and a philosophy that breeds engineering excellence. The reason for my visit to the company
facilities was to look at the manufacturing of their range of outdoor power equipment. Strimmers, hedgetrimmers, chainsaws; machines that I, like most of us, have enjoyed a love/hate relationship with over the years. Loved because of the raw smell and noise of the two stroke machinery as it waded into the jobs in hand, hated because
Haruo Uchiyama and Dave Saltman
Cast engine casing PC APRIL/MAY 2014 I 111
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