SUMITOMO NEWSVol.11

Due to an increase of demand for hydraulic excavators outside Japan, Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. set up a factory in China (Tangshan city, Hebei province) in 2009, in Indonesia (Jawa Barat, Karawang) in 2011. Along with a factory in Japan (Chiba), these factories produce and supply hydraulic excavators meeting every country’s needs in a global market. Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. works on building a product quality control system globally in order to deliver top-quality "Monozukuri".
QC (Quality Control) Circle Activities started in 1982 and later developed to TQC (Total Quality Control) then to TQM（Total Quality Management）. From 2002, it evolved to CS (Customer Satisfaction) Activities.
Corporate Officer of Manufacturing Division at Sumitomo Construction Machinery, Co., Ltd. Iwata Shuji explains, "We named it ‘CS Activities’ because we believe the purpose of quality control is to satisfy customers. At the same time, we adopted a statistical quality control technique called "Six Sigma Activities" to operate on two wheel concept with CS activities, findings and elaboration from the field, and skill upgrade".

Everyone at Chiba factory and over 30 small CS Circle groups participate in improvement activities. Activity level of Chiba factory is very high and they constantly position themselves high in the rank at Kanto area presentation events in which many companies compete against each other for their results. China and Indonesia factory deploys Chiba factory activities to promote human resource development. At both factories, state of the art production facilities are installed, but when it comes to product quality, it is the people that make the difference.
With Global Manufacturing Management Activities which started out four years ago, factories outside Japan operate based on the manufacturing management approach used by Chiba factory, the "mother factory". With the head of Manufacturing of Chiba factory as a leader, "global manufacturing management team" visits China and Indonesia regularly to audit and evaluate based on 5 measure, "people", method", "facility", "standard" and "management". For example, with "people", they check to see if the factory staff adheres to operational procedures and if the staff has competence of adhering to such procedures. With "method", they check to see if production methods are defined properly and if the factory staff is following the methods.

Permeating the Sumitomo brand through the world.

Iwata, Corporate Officer of Manufacturing Division at Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. emphasize that the key point of global manufacturing management is to look at the production procedures rather than checking the product quality. He also says that a product manufactured using proper procedures will become a high quality product. Evaluating with the 5 measures, communicating the points to be improved, education and training, and coming back to check if the improved points are maintained. Circulate these steps in a PDCA Cycle will upgrade the manufacturing management level at Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd..
As mentioned above, CS Activities and Global Manufacturing Management Activities at factories outside Japan originally started out to bring up their level to Chiba factory standard. As it turns out, Chiba factory also learns many things from other factories. "Chiba factory is inspired by seeing new perspectives and findings. We are starting to see factories inspire each other and grow together", says Iwata.

With production being done outside Japan, parts procurement is also being globalized. Because a hydraulic excavator is made up using many parts, its product quality depends heavily on the preciseness of each part and it is very important to control quality of parts procured from outside Japan.
Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. has been working on parts control and a division dedicated to controlling the quality of procured parts was set up in 2013 to reinforce such operation.
Iwata says, " welding, machine processing, assembly and painting are done inside our own factories and it is easy for us to train skills and techniques required in such operations. However, because skills required in manufacturing parts outside our factories are something the engineers do not touch and see everyday, it takes longer for them to acquire such skills. This is why we set up a dedicated division. At this division, they study about materials, heat-treatment, casting, forging and precision machining techniques which are key elements in maintaining parts quality and at the same time, they also maintain the quality of procured parts. They also visit both domestic and international suppliers to check on products with their own eyes and learn from experts to ensure quality. We strive to improve our technical level both inside and outside our factories so that we are able to maintain the level of our "Monozukuri" outside Japan."

With these cumulative efforts, skill level of employees outside Japan is improving. "Motivation in the factory site in China and Indonesia has increased. The staff is starting to take pride in their work and also doing ‘Monozukuri’ under Sumitomo brand. They are starting to share the passion for making Sumitomo brand more known to rest of the world."
Iwata is starting to see the good result.