In 2018 CEPEX launched a new seminar series on workforce development in the U.S. This initiative has been supported by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) under the U.S.-Japan grassroots program which promotes collaboration with private sector, government authorities and educational institutions, on how to address workforce development issues and the 21st century workplace. CEPEX organized the third seminar at Ohio University’s Dublin Integrated Education Center on December 3, 2018.
Mr. Tada’s presentation focused on the need for society to change from the 1980s’ mindset as the manufacturing industry considers how to approach training and reskilling employees. When Japanese companies first began to enter the U.S. and build factories, a main issue was training employees to reduce the gap between Japanese business styles and American work culture. As automation, robotics, AI and machine learning are incorporated into manufacturing systems, the larger gap will be between the analog and digital generations. Mr. Tada encouraged the audience to take a brand new approach for doing business in the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook & Amazon) world.
Mr. Sasaki’s presentation focused on “New Reverse Logistics”. Mr. Sasaki has been encouraging his employees at his reverse service logistics company to create in-house IT systems to increase productivity. While FSC has two IT employees, workers on the line are the ones who have the knowledge about how to improve systems and work flow. FSC employees used open source software to create an in-house IT system to monitor employees’ touch time on each item on the line.
The highlight of the panel discussion and Q&A session was the demonstration of Robot, which was operated by Ms. Nim Chen in California. Ms. Chin is the FSC Director of Return Center, who has successfully been managing day to day refurbishing and inventory operations in Ohio remotely by utilizing technology innovations, with a robot, AI and IOT systems.
