Today we visited the Mazda Factory and Museum. This was another company that I was very interested in seeing. I really wanted to check out their assembly operations on the factory floor.
Mazda's fleet of vehicles have won many Japanese auto awards for safety, quality and overall customer satisfaction. And the development of the SkyActiv system (increase fuel efficiency and engine output) is making their line of small and medium size cars a real competitor in Japan.
We started with the history of the company and the vehicles that they used to make like the 1960 R360 Coupe.
1975 Cosmo AP
The Mazda 787B, winner of the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans race
Mazda's new concept vehicle
Our tour continued into the assemble shop floor (no pictures allowed). We walked around and watched the operational process of how Mazda assembles their vehicles. And as a former General Motors employee, I was very impressed with this operations procedure. One thing that I noticed is that instead of having five people (like at GM) do five simple tasks in a footprint (workspace), they have one person doing most of the small jobs. Maybe it's the culture, not having a union or just really taking pride in your work but these employees are really working hard and not complaining. Another thing that I noticed is that when something breaks down, it's the line worker that tried and fix it first before calling for help.
Other differences that I noticed is that during lunch and breaks, when a chiming signal sounds (like a nice doorbell), I noticed two things: before the signal, they aren't just standing at their job staring at their watches counting down the seconds and when it does chime, they do not just drop what their doing and walk away. These people (per training) finish what they are doing, setup up their station for when they start back up and, most of them, are already prepared by having whatever snack or drink sitting at their station waiting for them. And those that do leave their stations to go to the restroom, most of the restrooms are close by so they don't have to run there and back. I can remember working at GM and Delphi that people would stare at their watches for the minute or two before lunch and break and say aloud, "Ill do this part when I get back" leaving their job early. I asked, in a hypothetical situation, what if someone did that here. The response I got was, "We have group leaders that can relieve you for a quick bathroom break if needed but if you leave your job early like you mentioned, you'd be released, instantly." Knowing people in America, we could come up with 101 excuses why this is unfair but that's all what they are: excuses; trying to justify individual's bad habits and behaviors and it's the company that pays. Like I said, maybe it the culture of taking pride in your work or maybe it's their work culture but I was very impressed. They somehow designed an operation system that works great.
Other differences that I noticed is that during lunch and breaks, when a chiming signal sounds (like a nice doorbell), I noticed two things: before the signal, they aren't just standing at their job staring at their watches counting down the seconds and when it does chime, they do not just drop what their doing and walk away. These people (per training) finish what they are doing, setup up their station for when they start back up and, most of them, are already prepared by having whatever snack or drink sitting at their station waiting for them. And those that do leave their stations to go to the restroom, most of the restrooms are close by so they don't have to run there and back. I can remember working at GM and Delphi that people would stare at their watches for the minute or two before lunch and break and say aloud, "Ill do this part when I get back" leaving their job early. I asked, in a hypothetical situation, what if someone did that here. The response I got was, "We have group leaders that can relieve you for a quick bathroom break if needed but if you leave your job early like you mentioned, you'd be released, instantly." Knowing people in America, we could come up with 101 excuses why this is unfair but that's all what they are: excuses; trying to justify individual's bad habits and behaviors and it's the company that pays. Like I said, maybe it the culture of taking pride in your work or maybe it's their work culture but I was very impressed. They somehow designed an operation system that works great.
Another thing about Mazda that I likes is that since they have allot of real estate, everything is done in-house and at their location: from research and design to pouring steel and molding to final assembly. And they have the real estate for it. Everything within the yellow dotted line is Mazda land.
After lunch, we then took a train towards the Itsukushima Shrine. We couldn't tae the train directly to it because its on an island.
It was a very picturesque ride. The mountains were just beautiful to look at while on the boat.
Once we landed on the dock and walked onto the island, we were greeted by very friendly deer.
Too bad we didn't see this sign until after the fact.
They should posted this sign when you first get off the boat so this can be avoided. But it was funny.
This island is the home to the Itsukushima Shrine and Miyajima Torii, best known for its famous "floating" torii gate.
Miyajima Torii
As shown here by Dr. Laurence, the water level is way low. He's showing where the level show be at. If it was flooded like its suppose to be, we wouldn't be able to walk out to the shrine. My estimation: the water level has to be 6+ feet higher.
What it looks like at high tide
Itsukushima Shrine has been a holy place of Shintoism for a very long time. It was one of the first shrine buildings erected around the 6th century. The present shrine dates back to about the 12th century.
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