AOTS Journal 2019 SPRING No.14 (ENGLISH)

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15No. 14 SPRING 2019●5th Peruvian National 5S Convention and prize-awarding ceremony On 7 November 2018, a prize awarding ceremony was held in Peruvian Japanese Theater of the Peruvian Japanese Association with the attendance of winners from 15 types of areas such as the manufacturing, nancing, and mining sectors as well as a primary and secondary school and city hall of Lima, showing a distinctive feature of 5S in Peru: its practice by various types of businesses, organizations and institutions.At this ceremony, they were addresses by guests from the Embassy of Japan, the Ministry of Production and Labor as well as Mr. Jorge Muños, mayor-elect of Lima, who is also a former trainee of AOTS (he attended a quality management training course in 1997 in Japan). Mr. Muños expressed his gratitude to AOTS for giving him the precious opportunity to undergo training and his wish to apply good aspects of 5S and Kaizen culture to keep the city clean and well-organized.The three-hour long awarding ceremony featured a keynote speech on ‘discipline and self-control,’ by a Peruvian expert in personal improvement followed by announcement of the winning organizations and awarding of trophies. It was held in a warm atmosphere and was an entertaining event, with a cheering contest by singing and yelling of volunteers from participating organizations that resulted in more excitement and featuring live performance of Okinawa-style drum beating in the middle.●3rd Argentine National 5S Convention and prize-awarding ceremony On 8 November 2018, a prize-awarding ceremony was held at the Buenos Aires stock exchange. Argentina’s 5S convention is arranged by an organizing committee consisting of the AOTS Alumni Society, local subsidiaries of Toyota, Honda and Yamaha, JICA and the Argentina-Japan chamber of commerce. This year’s convention had 13 contestants from different sectors such as manufacturing sector for automobile parts and electronics, nancing, and the statistical bureau.At its prize awarding ceremony, the attendants listened to addresses of guests including Mr. Satoshi Hishiyama, Minister Councilor of the Japanese Embassy and a representative of the Argentine association of parts manufacturers. Mr. Hishiyama, in particular, expressed his hope that in Argentine practice of 5S and Kaizen would be extended as the effects of both have been proven in Japan to support economic development.In conclusion of the ceremony, Mr. Alejandro Macri, chairman of 5S convention’s organizing committee, told the audience that this year’s convention had participants from other cities as well in addition to Buenos Aires, and sector-wise, it had participants from the service sector, in particular the statistical bureau, in addition to manufacturing. He concluded the ceremony by expressing his hope that people will keep on promoting 5S in the whole of Argentina including the public sector and educational institutions. National 5S Conventions in Latin America: Peru and ArgentinaAll the prize winners at the Peruvian national convention of 5SArgentine national convention of 5S: Minister-councilor Mr. Hishiyama (far left) presenting a trophy to a winnerTrophies at Argentine national convention of 5SPeruvian convention of 5S: Address by Mr. Muños, mayor-elect of LimaFor the greater diffusion of 5S practices, AOTS Alumni Societies have launched organizing committees at their own initiative and have organized national 5S conventions in Peru since 2014 and Argentina since 2016 respectively.