“ ino Juku - In Pursuit of Ultimate Skills”

The high quality and high reliability of Gigaphoton laser products was not achieved in a day. Maintaining a competitive edge in an ever-evolving semiconductor industry requires a brand new training system that allows each employee to fully understand quality issues and to enhance his or her skill level. Let us introduce you to “Gino Juku”, a training system that was voluntarily started by one employee. Gino Juku is now catching attention from inside and outside the company as a unique training school that plays an important role in Gigaphoton’s employee training system today.

The founder of Gino Juku is Haruhide Ajima, Manufacturing Group Manager of the Production Division, one of the employees who has worked in the Manufacturing Division since Gigaphoton was a business division of Komatsu. According to Ajima, one day in 1996 he asked a fellow employee, “Why the long face?” This one comment led him to start giving personal skill training to his colleagues. At the time, he had been asking himself “What do we need to do to manufacture a product that satisfies all the requirements of the Development Division?” Employees are actually under enormous pressure and must face a variety of challenges to finish the advanced designs created by the Development Division as mass-produced products. Ajima came up with the idea that making a high-quality product requires high-quality skills. So, he thought, “Let’s start by developing manufacturing skills.” Since then, by drawing on his rich experience he has been able to teach a variety of skills to employees who are eager to learn, even after regular work hours. The number of students in his personal lessons has increased every year. Several years after Gigaphoton was founded, his personal lessons turned into “Ajima Juku” or “Ajima School.” The success of Ajima Juku was recognized throughout the entire company. In 2007, the company decided to officially incorporate Ajima Juku as Gino Juku into its employee training system. Gino Juku already has already produced 80 graduates, and it has been playing an important role in enhancing the quality of Gigaphoton products.

ino Juku’s Missions
Enhance personal skills and develop a repertoire of techniques
Concentrate individual skills to raise the level of workmanship
Nurture the No.1 excimer laser technicians in the world

These three mission statements are “musts” for Gigaphoton to achieve the quality and reliability that our customers are looking for. At Gigaphoton, every employee is aggressively working on developing his or her competence every day to enhance customer satisfaction.

Curriculum of ino Juku

Assembly Basics and Case Studies      - Participation in the Oyama Technology        Olympics in the Oyama Factory of        Komatsu      - Participation in the All Komatsu        Technology Olympics

Freshmen training

Preparation for Technical Skill Test      - Assembly of power distribution and        control panels      - Assembly and finish of machines      - Maintenance of mechanical and        electrical systems

Skill practice for electrician license      - Second-class electrician      - First-class electrician

Study sessions for various licenses and    subjects

Action Plan for Tomorrow
Nurturing Specialists
Refreshment Training
Integration with Customer Support Training Team

Gino Juku is partially based on a traditional Japanese educational approach called “Shi-juku,” or “private tutoring school,” which reflects self-initiative and creates a learning environment that fosters skills in a free-minded and high spirit. Starting with the unique idea of a single employee, Gino Juku will continue to be a driving force for the enhancement of our products’ quality and reliability as we seek to achieve 100% customer satisfaction.

The 11th annual Oyama Technology Olympics was held at Komatsu Oyama plant on March 1 through April 12 2011.　Though the Technology Olympics was suspended due to the Great Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake, all the events were safely completed by April 12. While Gigaphoton has demonstrated its high performance with several top-three winners every year, this year ended with the best performance ever achieved by Gigaphoton.

In Division A of the Assembly Event, Kenta Shinoda, Tomoya Nakata, Osamu Kuramochi, Hiromi Uchida, Tomohide Someya, and Kaoru Tanaka swept the  top six places, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th places, respectively. Gigaphoton took 7 in the top 10 places. In Division B, Yoshiyuki Mizuse won 2nd place and Junnosuke Nemoto won 5th place. Mizuse qualified to participate in the 34th Annual All Komatsu Technology Olympic. In the Parts Inspection Event of Inspection Division, Makoto Tsukada finished in 2nd place.

Through this Technology Olympics, it was highly appreciated that Gigaphoton has striven to enhance the skill of each of its employees.

 

In order to further upgrade the ino Juku training system, 30 trainers were registered  to train ino Juku students for 19 special education/training subject, including “Basic Training and Refreshment Training,” “One-on-One Trainer Education Session*,” “Skill Test,” “Technology Olympics,” and “Various Licenses.”  This aim of this special training system is that each trainer is responsible for training the students and handing over the trainer’s know-how and skills to the next generation so as to further improve the companywide skill level.

* One-on-One Trainer Education: One-on-one training is a system in which one trainer is assigned to provide training and education for one new employee.