SPECIALSpirit of Monozukuri:
Practical Training Program for Students
Hisashi Togawa*, Mitsuyoshi Tabaru and Noriko ToMiTa
SEI Technical Training Center (TTC), which provides a variety of in-house training programs, has developed a learning
course for junior high school students. In this course, they can experience the joy of monozukuri through a “craftingspinning top” competition, a team game of crafting long-spinning tops by using the quality control method. TTC
believes that such experience will allow students to become interested in science and manufacturing afterwards, andthat cooperation between industry and academia in developing these practical curricula will lay the foundations ofcompetitiveness in Japanese manufacturing industries.
Keywords: monozukuri, training, social contribution

1. Introduction
1-1 Planning a Hands-on Manufacturing ClassIn Japan, the fact that young people are increasingly
moving away from science has become a social issue. It isoften pointed out that Japan, which is known as a major
manufacturing nation, is now in a critical situation due tothe rapid growth of emerging nations. Such an environment discourages young people from wanting to become
engineers. Children these days have few opportunities toexperience the joy of producing things, and so we havebeen planning in-house training programs to address this.
In October 2008, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
established the Technical Training Center (TTC) as a manufacturing training facility based on the concept of learning scientific principles using all the senses while touchingactual machines and things. Introducing more than 700
items of equipment and training kits, the TTC encourages
trainees to learn by trial and error through smells, sounds
and sights they cannot experience in the classroom. Students use all of their senses to fully understand principles,such as those underlying equipment failures or the occurrence of defects, and master the common language andknowledge they need for practical work.

Photo 1. The Certificate and the Award for 2010 Excellent Performance
Given by JSEE

Using this concept, we have planned and developed aHands-on Manufacturing Class program for junior highschool students, to provide to neighboring schools on a request basis. These days, an increasing number of Japanesecompanies provide science classes for junior high school
students to contribute to the community. By emphasizing
the concepts of the TTC and the spirit of social contribution, Sumitomo Electric has produced practical curriculathat allow junior high school students to understand manufacturing concepts in general, rather than only those concerning Sumitomo Electric’s products or manufacturing
process.
Sumitomo Electric received the Award for 2010 Excellent Performance from the Japanese Society for Engineering Education (JSEE) for this contribution. This article
describes the outline of the program and the Sumitomo
Electric manufacturing principles that underlie it.

2. Our Enthusiasm for Manufacturing
2-1 Activities to enhance manufacturing
The Plant & Production Systems Engineering Division
is promoting various activities based on the core mission ofclarifying the standards of the Sumitomo Electric Groupand improving manufacturing. As an example, Sumitomo
Electric established the Manufacturing Innovation Committee in 2003 and started group-wide activities to enhance
manufacturing, identifying two challenges.
The first challenge was to address changes in market
needs. Today, we manufacturers are required to implement
high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. However, products
manufactured and marketed by Sumitomo Electric aresuited for conventional large-sized lot production. Therefore, if we attempt to respond to the demand for a wide variety of products in small quantities without changing thisproduction method, we will have too much inventory. Tosolve inventory issues and achieve flexibility in producttypes and volume, while realizing quick delivery, it is notenough to make merely incremental improvements at individual sites. We considered that greater synergy effects

SEI TECHNICAL REVIEW · NUMBER 72 · APRIL 2011 · 57

could be produced by restructuring the production system
into a group-wide structure. We also explored the idea ofcreating a universal and sustainable ‘common language’ bysystematizing the wide range of manufacturing technologies and know-how that has been accumulated over the 110years of Sumitomo Electric’s history. This idea eventually
led to the creation of the SEI Production System (SEIPS).
2-2 SEIPS is an ever-evolving production system
SEIPS classifies Sumitomo Electric products into three
types: A (assembly), B (bulk materials), and C (cable), andseeks commonality and competitive production systems in all
three. If we have a common production system, we can sharetechnologies and knowledge of improvements and apply
them to different final products and to different markets.
This concept was introduced in the training curricula
at the SEI University in 2005. More than 2,100 employees
from group companies had learned this system by the endof 2009. They began to utilize the system in their workplaces
and showed steady progress. What is very important about
SEIPS is that it keeps evolving. As a production system that
not only solves urgent problems but also enables us to thrivein changing markets by continuously improving our basic
capabilities for one or even two decades, SEIPS has continued to grow with consistent standards and direction.

training was done according to programs developed by individual divisions. In October 2008, the TTC was openedat the Itami Works to develop manufacturing personnel
who have a full understanding of common manufacturing
principles, regardless of region, environment or fluctuations in business.
It is a facility with a ground area of 9,050 m2 andequipped with various machines such as plating and extrusion lines. A total of 127 training courses focusing on practical skills are held there. These are content-rich programs,
including: position-based training, which is given to all employees, particularly young employees; function-basedtraining, which is specialized training for each type of job,such as production engineering and equipment engineering; and needs-based training, which is cross-functional
training for unique technologies to be shared throughout
the group. We will further enrich the programs by creating
new courses based on joint research with universities, forexample.

Manufacturing in the SEI Group[Cable etc.]

Optical cable etc.

[Bulk]

Semiconductors,
sintered products, etc.

[Assembly]

Instruments etc.

Photo 2. Exterior of the Technical Training Center

Assembled and stranded
into one cable

Cable

Branched into various
products

Bulk

Consolidated into oneproduct

Assembly

2-4 Developing leaders for group-wide and global development
Further training to enhance manufacturing capabilities should be considered a mission for manufacturers, because it helps to improve productivity and to reduce losses,
and thereby promotes further energy saving. It is time for
us to become an even stronger organization by consolidat-Fig. 1. Sumitomo Electric Products and Process Types

2-3 Start of the Faculty of Manufacturing Technology
The second challenge was to address group-wide andglobal development. Through our experience of manufacturing over 100 years, we now have a wide range of approaches and standards regarding safety, environment andquality. These are common, globally-developing issues tobe addressed in every region by our group, which has thesame manufacturing target. The TTC was established as anorganization to consolidate these concepts into a ‘common
language’ and to provide training to all employees. The
Sumitomo Electric Group also had (and still has) the SEIUniversity as an education and training system intended
for all employees in the group, but in the past, technical

58 · Spirit of Monozukuri: Practical Training Program for Students

Photo 3. Training at the Technical Training Centering the company through fundamental skills training for
all employees.
We have also started to create programs with a view tooverseas expansion and have started providing some pilot
training courses on a request basis. The final goal is to have
local staff from overseas affiliates visit the TCC, learn a lot
from training, and thereby create a global resource network. However, for the time being, we are developing ideas
for overseas branch schools that have the minimum necessary functions.
We are promoting the steady but speedy establishmentof a foundation for global manufacturing using programs
fully based on the global ‘common language.’ We will positively and steadily develop these activities as the global
manufacturing culture unique to the Sumitomo ElectricGroup.

3. Hands-on Manufacturing Class for Junior HighSchool Students
We believe that we should use the Japanese traditionof manufacturing for education, and we can use the abovementioned concepts of the TTC for junior high school students to help them learn subjects within organizedcurricula based on good education methodology. Thesedays, Japanese companies are actively providing classes tojunior high school students, and therefore we have developed a program to let junior high school students understand the joy and necessity of manufacturing.
The ‘beigoma,’ which is a kind of small, Japanese spinning top, is a ‘manufactured product’ familiar to juniorhigh school students. Our program naturally introduces aprocess in which students in each team collaborate to design and craft the best performing spinning top in a competition. The best effect of this program is that attending
students naturally learn the importance of analyzing results
and adopting measures by realizing that how long a top
spins, which is an essential property of a good top, differs
depending on who makes it. This process leads to self-motivated learning: students recognize again the necessity andeffectiveness of the scientific perspective and mathematics.
This year, we began developing an environment in which
we can provide this class continuously and to a wider rangeof students, with the help of a board of education.

4. Lesson for Making a Spinning Top
4-1 Purposes and effects
The lesson for making a spinning top has three purposes: promoting teamwork, generating ideas and observing facts. It is also expected to produce the following effects:
1) Physically understanding the meaning of improvement2) Understanding the importance of making efforts toshow individual ability, originality and ingenuity3) Understanding the importance of the participation ofeveryone
4) Mastering the QC story5) Recognizing the importance of facts and data
6) Realizing the necessity of experiments and verification
7) Learning the importance of preventing recurrence ofproblems through experience
4-2 Procedure and evaluation of the game
STEP 1: Each student crafts a spinning top in any way
they like.
Each student crafts a spinning top of the any size theywish using matches, toothpicks, thick paper (selected fromdiameters of 30 mm, 40 mm and 50 mm) and tape.
STEP 2: Students compete by measuring the spinning
time of their tops in each group.
(The First Top Spinning Championship)
Each student tries spinning their top twice and records
the longer spinning time. One second is counted as one
point and the total points are calculated for each team.
STEP 3: Each team attempts to make improved tops by
doing the following:1) Summarizing the results of the First Top Spinning Championship based on facts. (Grasping the conditions)

Top Spinning Championship

Description

Every participant crafts a “Spinning top”in any way
they like.They try spinning their top,and competeby measuring the spinning time

Fig. 2. Data Summary Sheet based on the Scientific Approach

SEI TECHNICAL REVIEW · NUMBER 72 · APRIL 2011 · 59

2) Setting a target for the Second Top Spinning Championship. (Target setting)3) Investigating the cause of failure and defects in the spinning tops by using a cause and effect diagram and a relational diagram. (Survey and analysis)4) Considering how to increase top spinning time using
measures to counter the cause of failure. (Planningmeasures)
5) Making tops of the specifications agreed together in thegroup based on the countermeasures taken for improvement. (Effect confirmation)
STEP 4: Students compete by measuring the spinning
time of their tops in each group.
(The Second Top Spinning Championship)
In the final match, each student tries spinning their top
twice and records the longer spinning time. One second iscounted as one point and of the total points is calculated
for each team. Each team reports the target value, techniques developed by the members, and the actual results.
4-3 Effects of the championships
This is a very simple way of manufacturing and competing, but junior high school students who attend thisclass take the work seriously and devote themselves to manufacturing more than we expected them to. At the sametime, they realize the importance of observing and analyzing facts. The first championship involves individual
matches and shows large variation in top spinning time. We
propose a rule that students must set a common target andadopt a final standard design in each team, and this promotes teamwork among the students. In the design stage,in which they determine what kind of top they will make,they have discussions based on facts and principles, verify
the design (using trial and error) and finally complete an
optimized top. As a result, most groups succeed in increasing the spinning time double to fourfold. In this process,the students naturally develop skills for improving the spinning of tops and make new tops by sharing knowledge on
what works. This knowledge is transferred between the students and this is another important factor of this program.
The effects of this program achieved in the first year
were recognized by the city board of education. In the second year and later, an increasing number of junior highschools adopted the program. It is now becoming a regularhands-on class in the summer holidays as one of the formal
open classes offered to junior high school students.

5. Conclusion
This article introduces our manufacturing training activities at Sumitomo Electric TTC and describes how we developed ways to enable students to learn the importance ofmanufacturing, teamwork and observation of facts fromhands-on learning using a spinning top making competition.
Through this class, students get interested in manufacturing and finding solutions to problems, and they experience the joy of using originality and ingenuity, and thesense of competition between groups. This gives students
an experience of the joy of manufacturing, which is an inherent part of human nature. These programs and activities
have only just begun. However, through the cooperation ofindustry and academia, we strongly believe we can support
the future Japanese manufacturing industry by further developing systems that enable students from elementary
school to university age to experience the joy of manufacturing in steps and in appropriate ways.

Technical Term

*1 Manufacturing and Monozukuri : In comparison withthe word Manufacturing, which is a general English
noun meaning the making of products, we use theword Monozukuri to mean various Sumitomo ElectricGroup activities. These activities are based on theknowledge of technologies and skills that the Sumitomo Electric Group has accumulated, and the expansion of this knowledge is aimed at making ourcompany ever more competitive.

(1)(2)
Result of group “ROSE”

Spinning time (seconds)

25

20

Ave
17.0s

15

10

Ave
4.8s

50

1st time

2nd timeFig. 3. Effects of the Championships

60 · Spirit of Monozukuri: Practical Training Program for Students

References
Hisashi Togawa, Mitsuyoshi Tabaru and Noriko Tomita, Journal ofJSEE Vol. 58, No. 6Hisashi Togawa, “Evolving manufacturing of material products,”
Paper for the 2006 Kansai IE Convention held by The Kansai Instituteof Industrial Engineering (KIIE) of Kansai Productivity Center(KPC), pp. 111-126.

Contributors (The lead author is indicated by an asterisk (*)).

H. Togawa*• General Manager, Advanced Production
Systems Engineering Department,
Plant & Production Systems Engineering
Division
Engaged in enhancement of manufacturing capability activities and SEIPS development

M. Tabaru• Technical Training Center

N. ToMiTa• Technical Training Center

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