Senior Employee Profile – Meet Our People (Careers)

I am in charge of design and development of A/T shift levers for vehicles. Before joining JTEKT COLUMN SYSTEMS, I was engaged in design in a different area. Then I began to feel interest in another field in which I could observe the product designed by myself close to me. That is why I joined this company.

As there are many operations requiring adjustments and coordination with customers (carmakers), overseas subsidiaries and affiliates, I am always busy, none the less, my job is challenging and I feel an immeasurable sense of accomplishment. I feel happy when I find the shift lever I designed, at a car dealer.
Global operations frequently require communications in English, so you may improve your language ability while working. (Formerly, I was very weak in English, but I achieved success in improving my English ability while I was assigned to the North America office.)

At present, many colleagues kindly support me during daily operations, thus making up for my want of experience and knowledge. My goal is to obtain deeper knowledge while carrying our routine operations so that the parts I designed are mounted on board many cars.
Another goal refers to multilingual communication skill using simple daily expressions so that I can use them for global operations.

Attached to the Power Train Design Dept. after joining the company (for a period of 2 years and 8 months) → Sent on loan to the North America office (for a period of 3 years) → Reattached to the Power Train Design Dept.; Stays on the job for a period of 2 years and 4 months (as of April 2012).

I am a sales staff mainly in charge of steering columns for delivery to JTEKT. Before joining JTEKT COLUMN SYSTEMS, I worked as salespeople in the paper manufacturing industry. Sales style is different in different categories of industry. The automotive industry generally performs full model change in a five-year cycle. It is the essential activity of sales staff to check for and obtain information about when, where, what, and how many new model cars are manufactured. This information gathering activity must start several years before their new model cars or full-model-changed cars are put on the market. Getting ahead of others in obtaining necessary information allows us to have a sufficient time for planning necessary policies and measures and to have a longer development period; this situation will lead us to ensure product price and quality that meet the customer’s needs. In addition, before receiving an RFQ (request for quotation) from the customer, we can make preparations, have a proper understanding of cost and technical/engineering performance characteristics of each component, and can prepare an RFQ carefully, correctly and in an easy-to-understand way. In this way, we can gain the customer’s confidence.

As mentioned above, the customer generally orders our products in a five-year cycle. Failing to receive such a five-year cycle order, it brings us severe damage, so we, salespeople, bear a heavy responsibility. It brings us great joy if we are successful in receiving the order.
I feel that it is a challenging job worth working when I see off the car of which I took in charge and when I find it running on roads.

In the future, we must compete with overseas competitors in addition to Japanese competitors. Today, it is not unusual that auto parts manufactured by a foreign competitor are employed on board an automobile manufactured in Japan.
How to win in such a competition, and to which level of inroads can we make into the global market? –-These two issues comprise my future goals.

Attached to the Power Train Sales Dept. after joining the company (for a period of 6 months) → Attached to the Steering Column Sales Dept.; Stays on the job for a period of 4 years (as of April 2012).

My job is ‘car model application development’ of car seat parts. In-house core products (recliner, slide, lock, etc.) are optimized according to each specification of the customer so as to develop products with higher value-added; sometimes we design and propose in a different way involving peripheral components.
My section is also responsible for sales promotion of these seat parts. To obtain new orders, we visit customers in person and talk with them.

Without customer orders, no product can be manufactured. Working together closely with salespeople to obtain customer orders is challenging and I feel great responsibility.
A designer’s work does not only cover product designing and drawing but also require making negotiations with various sections and departments involved in order to overcome problems so that a competitive product (competitive in the sense that the customer is willing to purchase it and that its makeup is solid) can be materialized.
You need to make untiring efforts to continue communications with people, either customers, our competitors or our colleagues, to reach a mutual understanding and obtain their cooperation. In this way, you can solve problems and enjoy the real taste of design and development job.

‘Car model application development’ requires very delicate design because of the nature of the products to which occupants/passengers entrust their life. Notwithstanding, however, from the viewpoint of economical design, special design with individual system drawing (monopart drawing) is not permitted. Likewise, tolerant design considerations must be given toward local manufacturing overseas, which is rapidly increasing.
With respect to environmental issues, we need to meet customers’ request for stringent weight reduction toward introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles that will become mainstream in the near future.
To meet a wide range of requirements as mentioned above, it is necessary for you to consider total system optimization at all times in addition to the pursuit of individual suboptimization.
I personally aim at being a person capable of performing job from the viewpoint of total system optimization

After joining the company, assigned to precedent development of core products in Seat Design Dept. (for a period of 3 years) → Attached to the ‘car model application development’ of car seat parts; Stays on the job for a period of 2 years (as of April 2012).