Happy New Year 2020

Happy belated New Year! I hope 2020 is treating you all well.

I’d like to have a quick look back at what happened at the turn of the year at ISOWA.

Santa Claus came to ISOWA! This is the first Santa Claus I’ve ever seen at the office.

Some people were just surprised and didn’t know what to do. Others were so excited that they asked him to take a selfie. At least we all had a little good time.

Thanks for the surprise visit!

Now this is something more customary.

Every year we celebrate our people who have turned 20. In Japan, when you turn 20, you are legally recognized as an adult.

Good luck with your new stage of life!

Lastly, I received Business Person Award hosted by a Japanese newspaper company.

I’m so honored, but I couldn’t have done it by myself. I’d like to dedicate this award to my team, my family and everyone that has been a part of my life.

We’re certainly getting off to a good start.

Hope I’ll be seeing as many of you reading this as possible this year!

Guests from the US

Some of you might recognize one of the guys in the picture.
The third person from the left is an ISOWA America’s service manager.
He and his family came to Japan for vacation.

He’s from Idaho US, and has been working with us for 33 years.
He joined the company one year after I did.


Back in the days, we would hire local engineers for overseas machine installations, and he was one of them.

He had lived in Japan, and spoke perfect Japanese. Naturally he caught the eye of my father who was spearheading our growth in the US market at the time.


Since then, he has always been such an important part of ISOWA America. 

His Japanese skills, friendly personality and hard work.
These are without doubt what have made ISOWA America as successful as we are now.


And through all these years, it was always his dream to take his family to Japan and show them around ISOWA.

Look at their smiles! I’m glad his dream has come true.

I hope his family had fun in Japan and will come back again!

First time in 5 years

I visited Brazil for the first time in 5 years.

I wasn’t really excited about the flights that were almost 24 hours one way, but It’s always a great pleasure to see customers on the opposite side of the Earth.

One of the customers we visited purchased our Flexo Folder Gluer “Falcon” this April.

We’ve only worked together for a little over 6 months, but they’re operating the machine really well as if they have been for a long time! 

We’re so glad our machine can be a part of the company’s growth in the years ahead.

Another customer, in contrast, has been a customer of ours for a few decades now. 

From a new machine that was installed 2 years ago, 

To a more than 25-year-old machine, they’re using a wide range of machines from different generations.

The owner of the company told me, “Our partnership started in our father’s generation. It will surely be passed down to our sons one day”.

There’s nothing like having a customer like that in the farthest place in the world.

New partnership that has just begun, and the long-term one that I hope will continue for many more generations to come.

It was absolutely worth the painful flights!

x

Contents Protection vs. Productivity

Another ISOWA Flexo Folder Gluer ‘Ibis’ is about to be shipped out to the customer.

Our engineers are adding the final touches on some boxes.


Like this,

You can see uneven flaps. Why do they make a box like this?


You’ll see the answer when you try assembling it.

If a box has four even flaps, it would look like this.

And if you take a look inside,

You have an uneven bottom.


Well, what’s wrong with it? It’s just a box, right?

But, if you put something fragile in it, it could get damaged by the edges.

What happens when you have longer inner flaps, then?

That explains the weird appearance, doesn’t it?

It might look strange at first, but when it’s folded into a box, uneven flaps fit together perfectly making the bottom totally flat and eliminating the risk of damaged contents!

One problem though.
There’s the law of nature that complicates things.

The more irregular a sheet looks, the harder it is to run on machines.

It’s always a trouble in terms of productivity.

Or it was until ISOWA’s patented technology called “Edge Opener” came out.

With ‘Ibis’, the box quality and productivity are not incompatible anymore!

What’s inside the tent

A tent appeared inside our shop out of the blue.

This is not the first time, though. It shows up every 3 years.

You can see something sticking out of the tent.

If you take a look inside…

　　　　

It’s a huge roll!

Yes. It’s a time for certificate renewal for ASME.

For those who are not familiar, the purpose of this is to have experts evaluate how we manufacture pressure vessels for our machines and to prove that we’re capable of making ones that meet the safety and quality standards.

Without this, we cannot deliver our machines to America, even if customers want it. That’s why this is such an important event for us.

But what do they inspect exactly?

They check literally everything, from the manuals that we use, to how the manufacturing process is actually done.

And after two whole days of assessment, we successfully got the recommendation for the certificate!

With the renewal approved, we’ll be delivering safe and reliable machines to you like we always have!

What a machine sitting in the dark tells you

“Bon” holiday season is over in japan.

For those who don’t know, Bon is a one-week holiday in the middle of August when the spirits of our ancestors are believed to come back to our world.

Right before the holiday is when you can see our factory full of machines ready to be delivered.

The picture above is of a corrugator doublefacer for a Japanese customer.

Before shipping it out, we had the customer over for pre-shipment check-up.

“Not to mention the machine is great, what impressed me the most is the way your people relate to us, and how committed they are to making good machines”, says the customer.

Talking to them, I was thinking back to the time I had just joined the company.

Back then, assembly was always behind the schedule.

Shipment date was approaching, but machines were far from ready.

Some of us would even have to pull an all-nighter getting the machine ready for shipment.

This was so common back in the day that nobody didn’t even seem to care.

Then I started corporate cultural reform.

Fortunately, I haven’t seen it in a long time now. If you go to our shop past 5pm, it’s likely lights are all out and no one is there, just like when I went to take the picture above.

This is not because we don’t have as many orders as we used to. As a matter of fact, we have been at the full capacity for many years.

Yet we’ve become able to make better machines more stably and more quickly.   

Corporate culture may seem to have nothing to do with machine assembly.

But, believe it nor not, it’s what made this all possible.

How About a Meeting Room Like This?

We have renovated one of the meeting rooms into a traditional Japanese style one.

Looks cozy, doesn’t it?

Hung on the wall is a calligraphy work from my wife, which says ‘culture’ in Japanese ‘Kanji’ characters.

The reason I chose this word is because I wanted this room to be filled with interactions that could help to create the best workplace culture in the world.

　　　　

Another fascinating feature of this room is that it’s made partly of corrugated sheets!

How?

Look at the table! 

They’re also put under the tatami mats as a foundation.

Curious what it’s like having a meeting in here?

You’re always welcome if you’re interested!  (Hopefully interested in our machines, too!)