Business Vision
Today with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and second, third and subsequent waves of
infections, people's lives and economic activity are being seriously impacted.
I believe that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated social and
economic
reforms that would have continued to advance even without the pandemic.
Selco makes coil winding wire, which is very labor intensive and must meet strict
quality standards at low cost.
But a dozen or so years ago, this company moved away from the world of "tough,
strict
and cheap" and began pushing the concept of the "high-density coil" that involves
tightly winding coils to unlock their true properties.
Recently, with the shift towards electricity vehicles, high-density coils are in
demand
for high-efficiency motors, and we are now fielding inquiries from various other
manufacturers in addition to auto makers.
Ultimately, this trend will gradually spread to home appliance manufacturers as
well.
Just as a river flows from a higher place to a lower place, in goods around the
world
there is a flow from inconvenient to convenient goods, and from low efficiency to
high
efficiency.
With the passage of time, our coils will undoubtedly spread around the world.
Quality Control and Quality Assurance at Selco
Every day at Selco for the past 10+ years, through a practice known as "defect
analysis,"
production personnel and managers lay out all of the products that were removed from
the
production process that day on a desk, and we classify them according to whether
they
need to be discarded, reworked or requested for waiver acceptance. At the same time,
we
thoroughly pursue the reasons for the defect, which leads to improvements at some
level.
Most manufacturing issues are contained within these items which are actually
removed
from the production process.
If we truly analyze each item in a precise way and implement improvements for each
issue
found, it should almost eliminate manufacturing issues.
Has that made us perfect?
We are not there yet.
To achieve perfection in this respect, we need to address issues with the skill of
personnel and managers, and demonstrate powerful capabilities to take action.
However, by continuing with this process, without doubt we are moving in a positive
direction, albeit gradually.
The next measure in "in-process improvement" is patrol inspections.
With this, quality assurance personnel and managers patrol the site once a day to
check
quality and give immediate warnings or make on-the-spot improvements to minor
issues.
It has also been more than a decade since we began these inspections. Recently, the
quality of these patrols has been improving, and there are many
"prevention-is-better-than-cure" type issues being pointed out, suggesting our
efforts
are going in a good direction.
Even so, occasionally we see careless mistakes that make people think, "how could
this
kind of defect make it through!?"
Most of those instances are caused by junior workers.
This the so-called 4M fluctuation time.
Even recently, we had a serious situation where a defect that would impact a
customer's
processes emerged. When I visited the customer after things had calmed down, to my
surprise we were praised for how good our response had been.
It's not something to be overly proud of, but in these cases, I don't give
instructions
to "do this" or "do that" in particular.
Each of our manufacturing and quality personnel and managers take responsibility and
do
everything they can to recover from the crisis.
That was what impressed our customer so much in this case.
In any event, our goal is zero defects, or ZD.
To achieve ZD, we have to stamp out the various issues occurring within our
processes.
If we are aiming for perfection, we must completely eliminate the processes that are
causing the defects.
In other words, it is possible that such discussions will spill over into the
customer's
designs.
One customer experienced a spate of defects and issued a manufacturing request to
Selco.
When I looked at it, I noticed that the wiring position was extremely dangerous, so
I
suggested performing the wiring at a safe location. There was no contact after that,
but
when the engineers designing things stop doing the actual manufacturing, simple
problems
like this can often result in continual defects.
Quality improves through in-process improvement
Additionally, skills in production techniques can be improved by integrating quality
at
the same time.
Our aim is to achieve authentic manufacturing based on Japanese manufacturing
excellence, which is the best in the world.
Environmental Policy
The global environment is now worsening at an accelerating rate.
The world population that was less than two billion when I was born 70 years ago has
today grown to more than 7.7 billion. In the near future, that number will be within
range of 10 billion, causing a true population explosion.
First to escape starvation and later to make people's lives more convenient and
pleasant, humankind has been destroying forests, building roads and bridges, laying
concrete and erecting buildings.
To ensure a supply of food, forests are turned into fields, large numbers of cows, pigs
and chickens are raised, feed is secured for them, and in our oceans, overfishing is
occurring around the world.
The extinction of species is accelerating all the time. At present, around 100 species a
day and some 40,000 species a year are disappearing from the earth.
On top of that, we are experiencing abnormal activity in the climate such as global
warming, cold weather, abnormal rainfall and extreme drying (desertification), as well
as the wildfires, severe typhoons, hurricanes and tornadoes that occur as a result.
Additionally, this global warming is causing widespread melting of permafrost. As the
permafrost contains billions of tons of greenhouse gases, these gases are released into
the atmosphere when the permafrost melts, creating a negative cycle that could mean no
end to global warming.
There is also a risk that pathogens locked away in the ice for many years will be
released. Perhaps even COVID-19 is a virus that emerged as a result of humans exploring
uncharted territory of the world.
When we consider these events, perhaps we should take the latest COVID-19 scare as
nature giving a warning to humanity.
Other animals and plants have been pushed aside while only humans increase at a rapid
rate. With everyone demanding to live in comfort, I don't see any end to the current
destruction of nature or global warming.
Global movements such as the SDGs have spread, but I consider the basis for this
movement to be economic development, and if we really aim to create a sustainable world,
I think the only way is to give up on this economic development and instead have
everyone tolerate the minimum standards of living.
I learned this more than two decades ago and have held talks on environmental issues and
run workshops, but even though I held those views, my company was in danger of
bankruptcy and I ended up playing the part of an economist so that the business would
survive and develop. I feel truly sorry for my grandchildren who will likely experience
abnormal weather and other changes in the future.
However, I want to take the global environment in a positive direction if only a little
while running this company, and that is why I would like to talk about Selco's
high-density coils.
Technologies that contribute to the global environment
A couple of the representative technologies that will be needed in the future era of electric
vehicles are electricity storage technologies and motor technologies.
In particular, if improvements to the efficiency of these motors can cut down energy usage
by 30, 40 or even 50 percent, insignificant "coil technology" could make significant
contributions to improved energy efficiency worldwide, and help create a sustainable
world.
For specifics, I would kindly ask that you view the sections on our high-density coils and
high-density compressed and molded coils, but basically, by further compressing, bending and
molding these tightly wound coils and installing them in motor cores without gaps, up to
double the motor output, and at least 30 or 40 percent higher motor output can be
achieved.
If cars equipped with these kinds of motors increase, gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles
emitting CO2 at accelerating rates around the world will start to disappear, and these
eco-friendly cars will become mainstream.
In addition, the more efficient these motors become, the less energy they will consume,
which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the enviornment.
If the personal use of cars is eliminated and everyone calls taxis with the smartphones to
go to places, or usually walks, rides a bike or uses a kickboard for transportation, we
would be able to live while using the minimum amount of energy required.
I hope that Selco's technologies can help in some small way to creating a sustainable world.
1. Environmental Philosophy and Policy
- Environmental management philosophy
We will engage in corporate activities in harmony with the global environment for the survival of all humankind.
2. Basic environmental policy
- We will endeavor to develop products that are harmonious with the global environment.
- We will actively strive to conduct production activities that minimize the impact on the environment.
- We will comply with environmental laws and proactively respond to governance instructions and requests.
- We will proactively conduct environmental education and awareness-raising activities, and have all employees work to preserve the global environment.
Slogan
To preserve the global environment, we will fully demonstrate our technological and creative
abilities, strive for harmony with the environment and aim to bring prosperity to humanity.
3. Environmental Policy
To achieve harmony between the environment and production activities in accordance with its basic environmental policy, Selco Co., Ltd. will promote the following measures with wisdom, creativity and the power of action, and contribute to the preservation of the global environment.
- We will create energy-efficient, high efficiency and high-performance products that contribute to society.
- We will prevent environmental pollution and negative effects on the ecosystems due to harmful chemical substances.
- We will endeavor to minimize the environmental impact of our production activities.
- We will comply with laws and accept environmental requests from the region and customers.
- We will improve the environmental awareness of our employees and continue with company-wide environmental improvement activities.
- We will value communication with the local community and promote local environmental conservation activities.
4. Disclosure of the Environmental Policy
This environmental policy will be made public without restriction upon request.
Selco Co., Ltd.
Nobuyuki Kobayashi, Chairman and Representative Director
