HIDAJournal 2012 SPRING No.2

11/18

9HIDA Journal No. 2 ● SPRING 2013uniform base materials requires a great level of skill to evenly apply glaze to base materials, while the painting process requires experienced craftsmen to place the transfer paper onto the base materials with no mismatches or gaps. Then, painters draw on fine lines with gold or platinum by hand.You need both advanced technology and stringent control. What aspects do you pay attention to as you man-ufacture such products overseas?Our production line does not use a series of automated machines but features a lot of manual processes, requiring each local employee to understand the importance of quality. To that end, it is effective for our employees to naturally learn what the Narumi Group values and how our group operates through interactions with Japanese staff. Thus, we have defined a policy of enabling all our employees to speak Japanese and encouraging them to study the language. As we have started to pay a special allowance to those employees who pass the internal language test (Level 1 to Level 3), our employees have come to naturally speak Japanese at work.When we dispatched our seven future executives to Japan for training at the beginning of our operations so that we could develop production line leaders, we placed importance on production skills as well as on Japanese language proficiency. That is why we utilized the training program in Japan provided by AOTS (currently HIDA), which provides solid Japanese language education. Five out of the seven trainees are currently working in front-line operations right now.When was the printing process transferred to your company?We transferred the process in 2000. At the time, we utilized the experts dispatch program by JODC (currently HIDA) to in-vite an experienced employee from Japan. What is difficult in the printing process is to create the original forms for printing. In this operation, the final output of patterns is greatly influenced by how well operators can create the original forms and match the final patterns based on the sketch by the designer. This operation requires sensitivity to paint-ing or photography on the part of op-erators, who need to work in line with the intention of the designer. This operation, however, has not yet been transferred to our site, pos-ing a challenge we need to work on going forward.In the subsequent operation to place original forms on transfer paper, we need to make sure not to waste any space on the transfer paper. The operation to impose the in-place computer graphics data on a silver salt film requires us to reproduce fine gradation. In the operation to print patterns on transfer paper and create screen printing materials, we also need to be careful in the choice of such materials as paint and glue and the control of printing thickness. The more sophisticated our products are, the more colors we will use for them, which makes our operations more complex and difficult.Through the guidance offered by an expert for approximately a year, we obtained the skills to mix pigments and conduct test firing to create the same colors as the original forms, adjust the lighting volume and emulsion thickness to reproduce extremely fine lines and dots, and appropriately place screen printing materials to minimize gaps in multi-color printing. Finally, we have been able to produce transfer paper for our sophisticated products.I understand that you are looking into details to improve quality.We have currently grown into a core factory of the Narumi Group, with our products being exported around the world to places that include Europe, the Unites States, Southeast Asia, the Middle and Near East, and Japan, and used by famous hotels, restaurants, and airlines. Our products have a market share close to 100% in tableware used by luxury hotels in Jakarta and Bali in Indonesia and are used for various meetings including international conferences and first and business class services for airlines. We have been able to establish a good reputation with our products.I suppose you have successfully ex-panded your business since you trans-ferred the printing process to your site.That’s right. We saw an unexpected increase in incoming orders around 2003 and even faced equipment troubles due to overcapacity. We utilized the experts dispatch program provided by JODC to resolve the issue at the time.However, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 greatly impacted the operations of the Narumi Group, requiring us to further reduce our costs. Our company revisited all processes and saw some room for improvement in the productivity of the printing process.We had been improving our process in line with the guidelines of our Japanese factory until then. However, the proportion of personnel cost in the total cost is different between Indonesia and Japan and this country has different customs based on culture and religion. This means that repeating the way our Japanese factory operates is not always the best solution for us. Thus, we decided to localize (optimize) our production system in line with our local environment and staff in Indonesia.That was when you utilized our experts dispatch program for the third time.Yes. Localization in the true sense of the word requires experts who give instructions based on expertise on specific technology as well as on local environment and employees. The expert we have invited this time has been engaged in the production and development of transfer paper printing for over 20 years and has worked as the factory head and president of our company. He is well respected by our employees.We will make efforts to enhance efficiency in our operations through this experts dispatch program and deliver our high-quality products to more customers.It seems you have worked very hard on product quality. Thank you very much for agree to this interview today.Products by P. T. NARUMI INDONESIAPrinting process (placing an original form on transfer paper without wasting space)

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