1Experiential Report : Azbil Corporation
January 2020 – March 2020
Steven Phan2TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview ......................................................................................................................... 4Company Introduction ............................................................................................... 5
Technical Experience with Azbil Corporation ............................................................. 6
2.1

The First Day ...................................................................................................... 6

2.2

Parameters Testing for PID ................................................................................. 7

2.3

Working with Language A and Program B .......................................................... 82.4

Program B Programming ..................................................................................... 82.5

Code Testing/Automation .................................................................................. 9

Impact on Future Career .......................................................................................... 10Life in Japan ............................................................................................................ 114.1

Company Life ................................................................................................... 114.2

Outside Work.................................................................................................... 13

Advice for interns .................................................................................................... 17References ............................................................................................................... 18

3Figure 1. Automation for buildings ................................................................................... 5Figure 2 Breakfast at the dormitory ................................................................................. 12Figure 3 One of the Radio Taiso exercises ....................................................................... 13Figure 4 Oden--A great hearty dish for winter .................................................................. 14Figure 5 Hot springs in Itou ............................................................................................ 15Figure 6 Dinner at the Ryokan ........................................................................................ 15Figure 7 Breakfast at the Ryokan .................................................................................... 15Figure 8 Attempt at making lunch. .................................................................................. 16

4OVERVIEWThis document summarizes and reflects upon my experiences in Japan from January toMarch as a CJCP intern for Azbil Corporation. In the first section, I briefly introduce Azbil
Corporation as a company: who they are and what they do. Next, I go over the role of thedepartment I was in along with my role as an intern in the company. Subsequently, I reflect
upon the impact that this experience has on my future career. In the fourth section, I split lifein Japan into 2 parts: life at the company and general life outside of work. Finally, I provide
some tips for new/current interns pursuing the CJCP program.

5COMPANY INTRODUCTIONAzbil Corporation [current] was established on December 1, 1906 under the nameYamatake Corporation by Yamaguchi Takehiko. The company had its early beginnings as adealership for machines tools and other instruments imported from the U.S. and Europe(Azbil, 2020). After a century, Azbil Corporation has over 9,000 consolidated employees
across Asia Pacific, Oceania, Middle East, Europe, North America, and Latin America (Azbil,2020). Azbil Corporation is a leader in “human-centered automation” technology related tocontrols, measurement, building automation, and residential housing air conditioning.
Furthermore, Azbil Corporation tackles projects in life sciences that are geared toward themedical and pharmaceutical industries and its research facilities.

Figure 1. Automation for buildings

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TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE WITH AZBIL CORPORATION
My group was responsible for developing the PLCs for use in factories. I had theopportunity to partake in the software development for one of their current PLCs. In terms ofthe technical work experience with Azbil Corporation, I can split it up into “the first day,”
PID parameter testing, Working with Language A and Program B, Program B Programmingand Code Testing/Automation.

2.1 THE FIRST DAY
The internship began at 8:30 AM with a self-introduction/greeting to the team. There
were several teams on one floor (I’m not sure who is reading this, but if you are a current
CJCP student and have seen any Japanese office dramas, you can expect the layout to bepretty similar: open-space concept with the group manager at a table overseeing the team—
3-4 tables lined perpendicular to the group manager’s table and the team members working
side by side). After the self-introduction, my computer was set up and I was given a lot ofmaterial, and I mean a lot, for life in Japan and life at the company courtesy of the CJCP
alumni—I could really feel their presence supporting me through the first day of work. Afterreading the materials and getting the computer set up, it was time for lunch. After lunch, Iwas requested to greet the entire second and third floor employees (100+ in total) with, what
I believe, had to be different from the introduction in the morning—of course in Japanese.
Woah, that was nerve racking! After the introduction to the second and third floor, myemployer joked that the introduction was enough for today’s work (I really appreciate thehumor and light-heartedness of the employees contrary to my expectations of a strict

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employer-employee relationship). Finally, the afternoon greeted me with more documents,
accustomization to the company as well as a meeting to consolidate my work at the company.
Looking back, I can really say that the first day of work bombarded me with a considerable
amount of information that pushed me out of my comfort zone immediately. I’m not sure if
you will have the same experience as me, but you will get a lot of exposure to Japanese(listening and reading) as well as the chance to use it (written and spoken) at a technicalcapacity. There will be a lot of words that you will not know, but that is fine; just search themup and try to understand the context. The first day set the stage for the rest of the internshipand made me realize I’m not in Canada anymore; I’m challenging Japan.

2.2 PARAMETERS TESTING FOR PID
As a mechanical engineer, one of the fields we can dabble in is controls engineering. In
the first two weeks, as an initial venture into the kind of work my team was tackling, myemployer permitted me to set the PID parameters for their heating apparatus. The apparatus
consisted of a metal block heated by an on/off heater block (like the ones you see on 3Dprinters) and temperature measured by a thermocouple. This was an exciting since I just took
a lab course on measurement devices (thermocouples included) and will take a controls course.
The goal was simple: try to optimize the P, I, and D parameters such that a temperature set
by the user is achieved in the least amount of time possible all-the-while minimizing or
eliminating off-shoot. Very quickly, this proved to be a difficult task and I had to iteratively
research the impact of each parameter then proceed to test. The testing apparatus did not haveany sort of refrigeration unit, so for each test, I had to wait for the block to air cool before I
could test the parameters that I tweaked. Practically, this type of manual testing is not feasible,

8and customers would have to spend hours, days or weeks configuring the PID parameters tosuit their needs. As a solution, my team had developed a proprietary PID auto-tuning software.
With one click, the PID parameters for a specific application appears and the customer saves
days worth of time.

2.3 WORKING WITH LANGUAGE A AND PROGRAM B
After the parameter testing, [and realizing that auto-tuning is a fundamental necessity
for PID control] I finally began work on the company’s new product (note that details will beredacted). The team was in the middle of porting some their source code written in Language
A with compatibility for Program A to Language B with compatibility for Program B. As thefirst step, I was required make the basic functionality of the Language A source code workwith Program B on the team’s product. Afterward, there were some additional functions that
required system parameters to be acquired before its functionality could be implemented. Iwas also tasked with porting these functions over and doing any additional research necessary
to make the functions work. Through this experience, I really had a chance to become familiar
with Language A and work within a team.

2.4 PROGRAM B PROGRAMMING
After a meeting with the team, it was decided that it would be more desirable to havethe Language A source code written natively in Language B. Thus, for about a month, I wastasked with researching how to transfer code in Language A to Language B. Also, the systemparameters that were previously acquired had to be implemented in a different way, so I was

9tasked with that research as well. I gained familiarity with Language B in addition tofamiliarity with the Program B IDE.

2.5 CODE TESTING/AUTOMATION
My final project before I returned to Canada. With all of the porting done to the source
code, the team needed a way to check if the porting was done correctly. For this project, I wasrequired to create a framework for testing the code natively in Program B. The framework
would be distributed to the team members and they would create their own testing
environment for the code that they have written. After writing the code for testing code, itwould be automatically tested by a script that I was tasked with writing, and the results would
be uploaded onto the server for everyone to see.

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IMPACT ON FUTURE CAREER
Being part of the mechanical program at my university, most of the class time is spent onphysics and theory of mechanical systems. Placing myself within the software development
world gave me a bigger picture of the interdisciplinary environment that I will eventually workin. I had the opportunity to work with several different languages (computer and verbal), viewclean source code, practice documenting my source code, and collaborate with peers working
on the same project. I can confidently say that I have become a more well-roundedmechanical engineer and this experience certainly open new avenues for future job search in
Canada, U.S. and possibly Japan.

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LIFE IN JAPAN
4.1 COMPANY LIFE
A summary of my typical day:6:00 AM

Wake up and shower/bath

6:30 AM

Breakfast

7:00 AM

Leave for train station

7:15 AM

Ride train

7:30 AM

Arrive at train station closest to work

8:20 AM

Arrive at work

8:30 AMWork begins/morning meeting (朝礼)10:30 AMRadio Taisou

12:00 PMLunch

12:45 PMLunch ends

3:10 PMRadio Taisou

5:10 PMWork ends and end-of-day meeting (終礼)For me, a typical day would start at 6 AM with a shower, followed by a dip in the sentostyle communal bathtub in the dormitory. I would finish at around 6:30 AM and would either

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have breakfast provided by the dormitory (healthy and cheap set menus that change everyweek) or cook a sunny side up egg with toast and wiener.

Figure 2 Breakfast at the dormitory

I would finish breakfast at 7:00 AM brush my teeth and start to head to the nearest train
station at about 7:05 AM. At 7:15 AM I would catch the train and arrive at the nearest station
to work at 7:30 AM. From there I would have plenty of time to walk around the station andneighboring area before work starts at 8:30 AM. When work starts, we would always have amorning meeting (朝礼). Every day not before or after a holiday, team members would taketurns doing a morning comment where the person speaking would talk about something
happening in their life unrelated to work (really good Japanese practice and I would lookforward to these “morning comments”). At 10:30 AM everyone on the floor would get up
and do Radio Taiso (ラジオ体操) (several exercises that get you on your feet and moving). It
really is magical how everyone performs the exercises in sync, and I think it is a really goodto have the opportunity to exercise during the day—especially for jobs that require a lot ofsitting.

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Figure 3 One of the Radio Taiso exercises

At 12:00 PM the bell for lunch would ring and we would get access to 3 floors ofJapanese cuisine. The menu would differ on each floor and you could mix and match side
dishes with mains or purchase set lunches. I recommend that you try everything because
anything you pick up will be good! At 12:45 PM lunch would end. Again, the familiar jingle
for Radio Taiso would be broadcasted over the intercom at 3:10 PM and then the day would
end with the end-of-day meeting （終礼） at 5:10 PM.

4.2 OUTSIDE WORK
Outside of work, I was an absolute foodie and every weekend I would try to explore thefood scene in Japan. I typically found myself at Izakaya’s (居酒屋) that offer great food-anddrink pairings and, I would say, gives you access to the slightly more exotic side of Japanesecuisine. You also could talk to the マスター (the owner of the place usually preparing food atthe counter), customers around you and learn about the surrounding area/get ideas for yournext trip. The two dishes that stood out the most were Shirako and white liver (I suggest you
try these before searching them up) with Sake.

14Figure 4 Oden--A great hearty dish for winter

My foodie adventure at izakayas lasted for about one month before I decided to go on atrip to a Ryokan in Itou (伊東市). For about 250 CAD I was treated to a luxurious Japanesestyle course dinner and breakfast while having unlimited access to the several hot spring
facilities that they had there (the blissful sensation of sinking into the hot springs during awinter’s evening while viewing the night scenery is hard to put into words).

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Figure 5 Hot springs in Itou

Figure 6 Dinner at the Ryokan

Figure 7 Breakfast at the Ryokan

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By no means was this spending (money splurging) sustainable so I decided to put ahold on my foodie adventures and tried to recreate the flavors at home in the followingmonths. Breakfast would be primarily eggs, wiener, toast and a piece of fruit. For lunch I
would cook in excess, pack a small portion, and bring it to work. Then during dinner, I would
have some leftovers along with a lot of beansprouts/cabbage/tofu (冷奴). Sometimes pasta
would be on the menu.

Figure 8 Attempt at making lunch.

By making breakfast, lunch and dinner I saved quite a lot of money in the following
month and learned a little bit about Japanese cuisine.
During March, the world situation surrounding COVID-19 worsened. However, thesituation in Japan seemed relatively normal compared to the commotion going on back home;
I felt safe. Programs were put in place to increase social distancing and although people weregoing to work normally, shopping normally and enjoying their time outside, the curve seemedto slow down (perhaps attributed to the frequent handwashing, gargling and mask culture).

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Unfortunately, there was a recall that forced students abroad to return to Canada and myinternship ended there.

ADVICE FOR INTERNS
If you are planning to do something, make sure you make every weekend count, do thethings you want because you don’t know when a worldwide emergency will happen and you
will lose the chance to do what you want to. More importantly, make sure you have accessto and are always aware what to do in case of an emergency in Japan: contact The CanadianEmbassy, have access to the SOS international number/email/app, know the evacuation
procedures and be aware of the local muster point (避難場所). Have fun, but stay safe!

18REFERENCES
Azbil

Corporation(2020).

AbouttheAzbil

https://www.azbil.com/corporate/index.html

Group.

Retrieved

2020/03/23.