Today’s tour was at Sanyo in one of their cell phone plants. They start with a circuit board and all the tiny components. A machine then adds 95% of the circuits to the board, a precision task that requires the same movement at the same place every time. It does so much work that on the first level of the plant, people don’t do much of the work on the boards, they just watch the machines and fix them when they’re done. and solder it with a silicon paste with low lead content for environmental reasons. A mold is then put on top so that the other people on the line can put in the main chip set.

It takes 30 seconds to paste a board together. The card is soldered on each side to make sure pieces stay on the board. Then, important parts are glued down and dried at over 110 C for 35 minutes. A final melting process secures the chip to the outside, a step that Sanyo has moved in house to reduce costs.

The final step the board goes through is inspection. A machine tests to see if there is something wrong with a part and then alerts a human to inspect it if there is a problem. This insures that only 1/100,000 shipped phones are defective.

The entire factory requires a certain humidity level (between 45% and 50%) to reduce static electricity but having too much moisture causes corrosion. There was a hilarious English sign to explain humidity effect. It didn’t make any sense at all.

During the tour, we were showed an historical display of phones, each one smaller than the next. We were also shown the world’s thinnest phone which Sanyo makes of course.

On the second floor, the cards manufactured on the bottom floor were attached to the rest of the phone, screen, keyboard, etc. Unlike the first floor, everything but turning screws is done by humans.

During our question and answer session we got to ask the following questions:

What kind of training do line workers have?
The R&D people are engineers by training. Some of the workers are college grads but most have a high school education. The training of line workers is outsourced.

What are some of the outsourcing issues you have in the US?
In Sanyo, 65% workers are outsourced. This is done to reduced fixed costs. Sanyo has some if its own workers and outsourced workers working in same factory. However, they work in different places to avoid worker resentment.

Why will Sanyo’s LCD be sold in Wal-Mart first?
When Sanyo first sold color TVs in the US, they sold in them in Sears, which not a high price store. When Clinton was governor, he introduce some of Sanyo’s executives to some Wal-Mart executive. Sanyo has even located a plant near Forrest City. Because of these historical ties, Sanyo will give Wal-Mart first priority.

Why has Sanyo developed CDs made of corn ?
They are used as an environmental awareness tool since these CDs don’t last long under normal use. Advertisement can also be imprinted on the CD since they are relatively disposable.

How does Sanyo’s sensitivity to the environment affect costs?
Sanyo believes there is a market need for environmentally friendly products. In the short run, this costly but it will be profitable in the long-run since its ultimately what people want.

Are Sanyo employees worried about outsourcing?
Sanyo wants to keep its employees. If an employee’s job is eliminated, it will shift that employee around to a different part of the corporation.

Has the Solar Ark been successful? Will Sanyo make more of them?
The Solar Ark is a symbol of Sanyo’s technical ability. No more are planned.

How do cell phone features differ between the US and Japan?
Consumers in both countries want the same features, however Japan usually is ahead in technology based features. In America, Sprint is Sanyo’s biggest sales segment.

The evening event was a professional baseball game, the Hanshin Tigers vs. the Yokohama Base Stars (insert your Battlestar Galactica joke here). I haven’t been to a professional baseball game in America in a while but in Japan they do it quite differently than in America. There is no national anthem played but there is a ceremony at the beginning of the game. It was all in Japanese so I didn’t get what was going on. All the player lined up along their respective baselines and it looked like some presentation was made at home plate.

After that the players took to the field, the outfielders threw out balls to the crowd. We were sitting in the 39th row of right field so we didn’t get close to any of the balls they threw.

Then the cheering really began. Since the right field is made up of the cheap seats you really have the rabid fans out here. Before heading into the stadium we equipped ourselves with noisemakers, short hollow plastic bats with Hanshin Tigers logos imprinted on them. There were a few standard songs that where we learned how to keep time with our beaters. Every batter had their own cheer which of course was in Japanese but they did have similar refrains at the end, “Kata mase Kanemoto!” or “Kata mase Akahoshi!” This meant “Go (the name of the player)!” One of the players on the Hanshin Tigers was an American who had a couple of special cheers in English “Ret’s go Georgie! Ret’s go! Georgie!” and “Homu runu Georgie!” (these cheers are exact translations from the Japanese katakana). Since we were rooting for the home team we got some funny looks but we were soon accepted and taught a couple of cheers by neighboring fans.

The Hanshin Tiger’s 7th inning stretch was unusual. Everybody in the stadium was given 4 foot long balloons to blow up. After the visiting team batted, everyone released their balloons which made a loud whistling sound because of the plastic cap at the mouth of each balloon. It was quite a site to see.

Even with our enthusiastic cheering the Tigers lost 8-2 which fortunately, made our trip home easier. The trains and terminals leaving the stadium were jammed packed and we were very in friendly spaces with the people returning home. I can only imagine what it would have been like during a win.

Tomorrow, Tamano City and another homestay.