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EPTE Newsletter from Japan - The Analogy Between Ichiro Suzuki and Toyota Motors

I am trying to think of an analogy between Ichiro Suzuki, a star player for the Seattle Mariners and Toyota Motors, the largest automobile manufacturer in Japan.

Ichiro Suzuki is not a typical Major League Baseball slugger.  His mission at the plate is not to hit homeruns, but get on base as much as possible.  He seldom swings for the fence. 

An infield ground ball turns into a hit because of his speed, and singles and doubles stretch to triples because of this on base quickness.  Do you remember the inside park home run hit in the All Star Game? Another dimension he brings to the game is base stealing.   Additionally, his fielding is also outstanding, as witnessed during several fine plays during the season.  He is one of three outfielders nominated for Major League Baseball's Golden Glove Award.

Ichiro once commented that it would be possible for him to hit more homeruns, however, his batting average would be much lower.   Sticking to this philosophy has resulted in his batting average to be the second highest in the league at 0.351 on 238 hits (the highest number of hits in the league).  He also scored 111 runs and stole 37 bases.  Over the last seven years in the league, he has averaged over 200 hits, 100 runs and 30 stolen bases each season.

What kind of analogy can I draw between Ichiro Suzuki and Toyota Motors? Well, Toyota does not produce a flashy sports car, but does provide reliable sedans and trucks to a consumer market that demands quality. Ichiro may not swing for the fence on every at bat, but he can be counted on to get on base. Toyota's management team does not make long term business plans, but it hits its yearly unit production target as well as its profitability target. The entire workforce, around 70 thousand employees, is conducting Kaizen actions (small improvements, continuously) everyday to make high quality cars while reducing costs.

As a result of this philosophy, Toyota Motors will be the top automobile manufacturer in the world, displacing General Motors this year. Toyota has set new income records every year, with profit of 2 trillion yen for fiscal year 2007 (about 18 billion US dollars).  This remarkable achievement could give Toyota bragging rights for recording the highest level of income for any manufacturing company.

Toyota will cerebrate its 70th year anniversary this year, and as a reward to its employees announced it will pay out an average of 2.6 million yen as bonuses to each of its employees ( more 20 thousand US dollars).  Toyota will provide another 4 billion yen as a commemorative bonus for all of the employees, 50 thousand yen for salaried employees and 100 thousand yen for managers.

The similarities between Ichiro's and Toyota's performance begin with both their makeup.  Neither is too glittery; however, both show up for work everyday and strive to continuously become better.  The result of their work ethic and common goal towards excellence has positioned them as true leaders in their respective industries.  This may not be a typical Japanese way; very few companies and people in Japan perform at these high levels.

Unfortunately, the Seattle Mariners did not qualify for a Wild Card berth, but they were very close. Hopefully, next season.

Dominique Numakura, DKN Research (dnumakura@dknresearch.com)

Headlines of the week

(Please contact haverhill@dknreseach.com for further information of the news.)

1.      Arisawa (Major flex circuit material supplier in Japan) 10/29

Shipping volume has been keeping high level. But the income have becoming smaller because of serious price competitions.

2.      Taiyo Industrial (Manufacturer of flex circuits and test machines) 10/29

Has shrunk both of revenue and income in 2007, 3rd quarter. Slow market demands of the test equipment were the brake of the business.

3.      Shinoda Plasma (Display manufacturer in Japan) 10/29

Will start the manufacturing of large size PDP using plasma tube arrays of films. It will start from 1 x 2 meters size. It will be 3 x 2 meters in 2008.

4.      Sabic Innovative Plastics (Saudi Arabia) 10/29

Has developed a new encapsulation technology for LCD light guide plate and flexible displays.

5.      Oki Electric (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/30

Will start the volume production small size camera module for cellular phones using WLP technology with through holes on silicon wafers.

6.      Pioneer (Major electronics company in Japan) 10/31

Has frozen the new plant building plan of plasma display panels because of serious  price war in the market.

7.      Nikko Metal (Major metal material supplier in Japan) 11/1

Has developed the world first 450 mm diameter poly-silicon wafer for the test purpose.

8.      Showa Denko (Major chemical company in Japan) 11/1

Has developed a new heat resistant transparent film for optical device applications. The new film is stable up to 250 degree C.

9.      JAE (Major connector manufacturer in Japan) 11/2

Has commercialized a new optical connector series "FO-EX Series". It can be divided in two parts for easy cleaning.

Interesting literatures about the packaging industry

Articles of DKN Research

1. New "Screen Printing for High-Density Flexible Electronics", Robert Turunen, Masafumi Nakayama and Dominique Numakura, Printed Circuit FAB, October, 2007, http://pcdandm.com/cms/content/view/3846/95/

2. New "Total Process Solution for the High-Density Multi-layer Flexible Printable Electronic Circuits", (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, October, 2007

3. New "The latest electronics package, Part XXXI, Cellular Phones", Dominique Numakura, Electronics Packaging Technology, October, 2007 

4. New "Coombs' Printed Circuits Handbook, 6th Edition, Part 15-Flexible Circuits", Dominique Numakura, McGraw Hill, New York, September, 2007

5. New "DKN Research Develops Film Base Connector", Circuits Assembly, September, 2007.

6. "Flexible Circuit Materials", (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, April, 2007

7. "Business Trends and Technology Trends of the HDI Flexible Circuits -

Roadmap for the Ultra High-Density Advanced Flexible Circuits", Dominique Numakura, KPCA, October 31, 2006

From the Major Industry Magazines

1. "Rigid-Flex Technology: Mainstream Use but More Complex Designs", John Isaac, CircuiTree, September, 2007.

2. "Using AOI in the 01005 Assembling Process", Owen Sit and Joshua Petras, Circuits Assembly, September, 2007.

3. "Corner and Edge Bond Dispensing for BGAs", Al Lewis, SMT, September, 2007

4. "OPTOELECTRONIC SUBSTRATES - Will it happen?", Jack Fisher, Printed Circuit Design & Manufacturing, September, 2007.

5. "Single Wafer Surface Conditioning", Scott Drews, Advanced Packaging, August/September, 2007

7. "Under the Hood, Efficiency vs. Speed", presented by EE Times and Techonline, October 8, 2007

8. "Tape Substrate Manufacturers Have Been Facing Conversion Phases", (Japanese) The Semiconductor Industry News, September 26th, 2007