Japan Industrial Study Tour July 2024

If Japan can, so can we!  Take your first real ‘Gemba Walk’ and see for yourself how it’s done.

Observe the real roots of Lean, Six Sigma, TQM and Hoshin Kanri at their source. Meet those who originated it all and see first hand in a range of different organisations. See for yourself not only how it all came together but how it looks today and where it might be going in the future. Formulate your own plan of how to emulate the best of what you see.

Pursuing a larger role for quality and a strategic one, the Japanese built a quality revolution. In the 1950’s the senior executives of Japanese companies took personal charge of managing for quality. The companies trained their engineers to use statistical methods for quality control. The companies enlarged their business plans to include quality goals. Each of these actions was unprecedented in industrial history.

Japanese industry is globally recognised as being the world leader in its approach to continuous improvement, having pioneered methodologies (referred to in the West) such as Lean, Six Sigma, TQM and Hoshin Kanri. DHI have unique links with Japanese industry and business leaders. The industry tour will give you unprecedented access to the shop floor of world leading companies. In this 14 day tour, you will visit the organisations where the pioneering methodologies originated, you will see how it all came together and how it looks today and where it might be going in the future.

This tour will provide professionals from both manufacturing and service industries with the opportunity to visit Japan and experience world-class manufacturing first-hand with plant visits to Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, and cultural visits to Kyoto.

The programme aims to stimulate ideas and share best practice through real-life scenarios and learning. Having run several times before, the programme is proven to provide delegates with the vision of how to achieve measurable improvements within their own organisations.

When will the tour take place?

The tour is being planned for early summer 2024 with a maximum of 20 delegates, those who express an interest will be given first preference. There may well be other possible tours of one week or so but coming from Western Europe we would not recommend anything less that the two weeks we plan for. Experience has shown us that regardless of how well participants might think they are coping with the time difference on arrival, the disorientation is still there. In the second week the discussions between participants is as important as the experience itself.

*The study tour programme below is a sample tour and ran several years ago. The details are subject to change and DHI will confirm details later this year (2023).

Typical Itinerary

The following programme is purely a guide both for you, the companies and seminar are those we have visited in the past. The actual programme will vary from this, a finalised version will be published out later this year (2023).

A Saturday in early summer 2024: Meet at Heathrow for flight to Tokyo.

Sunday: Arrive in Tokyo and transfer to typical accommodation, 5 nights at the Hilton Hotel or Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku Tokyo.

Monday to Wednesday: Join the JUSE 3 day International Seminar on TQM for Top Management.

Juse 3 Day International Seminar Programme

Presenters will include leading top professionals in Japan who have years of experience successfully implementing TQ in research, design, manufacturing, and Sales Divisions and providing TQM consulting to companies worldwide.

Topics will include: General concepts of TQM, Role of Top Management in TQM, Policy Management, Quality Assurance and ISO Standardisation and Daily Work Management, how to operate TQM, QC Circle Activities, and case studies of TQM Implementation.

Plenty of ‘Question and Answer, time will be provided to discuss key points with the instructors.

Interact and exchange ideas with top professionals from around the world who share with you, similar experiences implementing TQM.

Take back effective problem-solving techniques by learning from the ‘trials’ and ‘errors’ others have experienced implementing TQM in their companies: share insights and work together to develop implementation strategies and techniques. Participants will be organised into small groups to maximise discussion time.

2-Day Case Study Visit to Deming Application Prize Winner Companies

Following the Seminar, there is a 2-day case study visit to Deming Application Prize winner companies in the Tokyo region. Participants will be divided into two groups on each day to make a full day visit to a company.

Participants may select the industry of their choice according to their preferences from the following:

1st Day : Group A: Electric,

Group B: Automotive

2nd day

Group C: Machinery,

Group D: Others

The group D participants on Day 2 may indicate an industry of their choice and attempts will be made to accommodate the majority view.

There may be an optional programme to visit departmental stores, supermarkets, and discount shops in Tokyo to study product market conditions.

Friday evening: Transfer to Kyoto by Bullet Train.

Saturday and Sunday: Sightseeing tours in Kyoto, Japan’s oldest city and Nara the nearby cultural centre.

Sunday evening: Transfer to Osaka.

Monday morning: Visit Minolta Camera, Sakai Plant.

Monday afternoon: Daikin Kogyo, Sakai Plant.

Tuesday morning: Komatsu Osaka Plant.

Tuesday afternoon: Suntory Ltd Katsuya Brewery.

Wednesday morning: Yuasa Battery Fukuchima Plant.

Wednesday: Leave for Nagoya, Plant visit Toyota Ltd.

Thursday morning: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Thursday afternoon: Leave for Toba Bay. Pearl sightseeing diving for Mikimoto Pearls followed by journey to Hamamatsu and the Deming prize winning hotel.

Friday morning: QC Meeting with members of Kanzanji Royal Hotel. Leave for Tokyo.

Saturday: Depart for UK.

What do you get from this tour?

The opportunity to gain credibility for knowing with confidence what you are talking about when discussing the spectrum of tools techniques, business management concepts that could propel your organisation towards unchallengeable world leadership in your field.

To see for yourself the real roots of concepts discussed in the West, often by people who only know a small fraction of the story.

To see for yourself the world beating methods of the top international Japanese companies and to discuss with their thought leaders how these concepts really work.

To be accompanied by David Hutchins who has not only organised many such visits in the past but is himself recognised in Japan to be amongst the world leaders in this field. To be able to be advised by him following the visit if you decide to attempt to implement the concepts you have seen for yourself.

If you do implement the concepts, the positive impact on your business will most likely be many orders of magnitude greater that the cost of this trip.

“Over the years we have spent many tens of thousands of pounds on sending our key managers on courses at the leading business schools. They got more out of this trip to Japan than from all of those courses put together”

Fees

The fees are not yet determined but the price will include the Seminar, plant visits, sightseeing fee and lunches (except in your free time). 13 nights accommodation, single rooms (including breakfast). The standard of hotel will be similar to that of the Tokyo Hilton Hotel which is 90 minutes from Narita Airport and 10 minutes from the JUSE Seminar.