The red pencil negates the "one move, one clap"

[ayshakhatun3113]

In 2001, I was working at a subsidiary in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, with a pencil in hand. Yonezawa is a production base for glass less than 1 mm thick, used in liquid crystal displays, and as mentioned in the previous issue, I was sent to start up the company and went through a lot of hardships. Then, in October of the previous year, at the age of 46, I was appointed as the president.

The subsidiary continued to run at a loss even eight years after remove background image it was founded. It began to handle glass products with an area nearly ten times larger than the products he had originally developed, and production volume was expected to increase dramatically, but productivity had not increased at all.

A consultant was brought in, a goal was set to reduce total costs by 20%, and this goal was thoroughly implemented in all workplaces. To achieve this goal, nearly 90 improvement activity teams were formed. Each team used their free time between shifts to explain "why this is necessary" and "what is the purpose of doing it."

After the briefing, everyone was asked to write down their thoughts about what was said today. The department heads would later collect the written impressions and bring them back to them. They would mark the impressions in red pencil, saying things like, "This isn't right," or "You should do that like this." The document with the notes and comments would then be returned to each individual through the department head. There were about 800 people in total. The system is set up so that all of them will come into contact with the president's red writing at least once each year. As the red pencil gets shorter, thoughts are shared with everyone.