MISUMI Group, Inc., Receives the Award for Innovations in Manufacturing Processes from JMA

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The GOOD FACTORY Award was established by the Japan Management Association (JMA) in 2011 to recognize excellent manufacturing corporations for their commitment to improving and innovating production facilities in Asia. Past award recipients include manufacturing plants and business offices operated by major automotive and electronics manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan and Panasonic Corp.

Suruga Production Platform Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of MISUMI Group Inc., was awarded the 2014 GOOD FACTORY Award for Innovations to Manufacturing Processes by the Japan Management Association. We are honored to receive the GOOD FACTORY Award as recognition by knowledgeable experts in the field of manufacturing of our accomplishments in innovating manufacturing processes.

This award recognizes MISUMI’s innovative achievement of developing a stable supply regime capable of delivering reliably on short lead times despite having no advance notice of when, how many and what type of product the customer will order. Although the model offers the customer tremendous convenience, it creates an extremely trying environment for the manufacturing plant, making it nearly impossible to forecast orders.

The successes in innovating manufacturing processes were made possible by: 1) establishing procedures and methodologies for improving work processes; and 2) leveraging IT in production management and support systems. The first item entailed giving the workplace the autonomy to pursue improvements independently. The second item entailed globally unifying production management systems and automating support systems for each step in the production process. We consider the award to be recognition of the accomplishments described above as well as our constant desire to continue to make improvements.

Reasons for the Recognition

In being awarded the GOOD FACTORY Award, the MISUMI Group was recognized for the following accomplishments:

  1. Strong leadership: Leadership that has pursued reforms at work sites through sustained investment of time, money and personnel.
  2. Active efforts aimed at improvements: Improvements to processes by supervisors and staff at the work site working primarily in small teams.
  3. Global deployment: Global deployment of process improvements, as well as a desire to learn from overseas plants.

Additionally, the review opinion cited as its rationale the difficulty of reforms accomplished in going from large-lot production, to piece-by-piece production on short delivery times and finally to a production regime capable of delivering on short lead-times despite a great variety of quantities and product types in the orders received.

We at the MISUMI Group accept this award as encouragement to continue to drive innovations to manufacturing processes with the aim of establishing a stable supply regime capable of delivering reliably on short lead times in response to orders that vary tremendously in terms of quantity and product type.

Click here to read the official Press Release in English.

Click here to read the official Press Release in Japanese. 

About the Author

Carlicia Layosa

Carlicia is the Marketing Automation Manager at MISUMI. She holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate, Marketo Certified Expert, and is passionate about education and training.

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