TAKAKO DNA

WASTE ELIMINATION ACTIVITIES

Employees as a whole engage in the waste elimination activities.
Yoshitomo Ishizaki, Chairman of the Board Waste is countless in any work environment. In my opinion, thirty percent is waste, and if you eliminate this 30 %, new waste will be found.

To eliminate waste is to save money. For example, provided that you could earn 50,000 yen as a net profit from the sales of one million yen and if you could get rid of waste equivalent to 50,000 yen, it means to attain the sales of one million yen. We have 28 teams in total to tackle every kind of waste in the head office and Shiga plant.

This all started from a talk with a president of a major corporation. When I asked him about the reason of their high profits even in the time of a great recession, he told me that they had been tackling to eliminate waste. I also came to know that there was a company of which one division had taken in this activity and became only one that increased profits among many divisions in that company. Impressed by these stories, we began to seriously address waste issues three years ago.

One point about noticing waste is to ask ourselves “Do we really need this?”.
By thinking or asking like “Why do we need this?” and “Is this really necessary for our business?” in daily work to where you seldom give a second thought, we can find a lot of waste.
Report on the War on Waste

We got successful results both in the first and second year by making waste issues more visible in the respective areas and by getting whole employees to be involved for tackling. In the third year, too, we are continuing asking ourselves like “Why do we need this?” and “Is this really necessary for our business?” to identify and eliminate waste.

| First year (FY08) | Second year (FY09) | Third year (FY10) |

First year (FY08)
Team Name Theme Goal
M1 Material waste Reduce material waste during processing
M4 Shipping material waste Improve shipping materials to enable adoption of one way
M5 Shipping/return transport cost waste •Eliminate shipping waste, optimize shipping costs (lowest price)
•Eliminate logistics route waste, devise efficient shipping method
M6 Disposable item/jig waste •Reduce inventory amount through central purchasing, sharing, and re-grinding
•Establish a bidding system to procure at the lowest price
M7 Disposable item/jig purchasing method waste
M9 Energy waste All members will think about energy waste, devise ways to save energy, and spread them throughout the company
M10 Space waste Review slow-moving stock and idle equipment, eliminate wasted space in company stock, reduce costs for external storage
Total yearly saved amount (unit: yen): 65,014,000
Second year (FY09)
Team Name Theme Goal
M13 Disposable item/jig waste (continued from M6/M7) Reduced overall disposable jig costs and effectively utilize jigs by standardizing, sharing, and re-grinding cutting condition tools
M14 Energy waste (continued from M9) Make electricity, air, oil, and other energy resources thoroughly easy to understand in order to increase awareness of energy saving in all employees, and create an environment where everyone will feel that we are working to save energy
M15 Outsourced manufacturing unit price waste •Create a cost list, implement the appropriate pricing by clarifying unit price standards, and reduce costs
•Reduce costs by using outsourced processed and completed items, and reduce ancillary work
M16 Cycle time waste Review processing conditions and reduce die-set change-out times, thereby reducing actual total cycle time. Also, use this as the groundwork for reducing internal processing costs through standardization and lateral development (incl. into other groups).
M17 Paperwork waste Eliminate waste from ledgers and forms normally used, as well as interdepartmental paperwork waste
M19 Shipping material/fees waste (continued from M4/M5) While taking care that shipping is one way, comprehensively review shipping materials and shipping shape for optimal logistics
M20 Quality inspection waste Establish a quality assurance system based on process capabilities and methods, make quality inspection work efficient and simple, and train workers that will be able to control quality.
M21 Logistics waste between TVC and TSP Seek efficient distribution between TVC and TSP, implement a continuous streamlining production method when shipping material and receiving products (including ancillary devices)
Total yearly saved amount (unit: yen): 14,767,000
Third year (FY10)
Team Name Theme Goal
M23 Disposable item/jig waste Re-grinding and burnishing to be done in-house
M24 Energy waste Main project is to eliminate air blowers
M25 Logistics waste between TVC and TSP Eliminate distribution waste between TVC-TSP, eliminate refill waste
M27 Quality inspection waste Focus on improving on start-up loss by speeding up quality inspections
M28 Equipment waste Reduce the amount of equipment by improving processes
Activities are underway