Newsletter 49 (September 30, 2022) | |
In this issue: HR Conference / Mexico Safety Conference / Glorious Excellent Company Awards for SHMB, SWPC, and SEL / Sumitomo Electric Group companies at trade shows / Kaizen Corner with SEIP / News from SEUHO | |
HR Conference in New York | |
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For the first time since 2019, the semi-annual HR Conference was held as an in-person meeting on September 28 and 29 in New York. The conference was organized by SEUHO Human Resources and attended by representatives from 14 Sumitomo Electric Group companies in the US. It was a great opportunity for many of our HR professionals to reconnect and learn from each other. Those who couldn't make it to New York for the meeting were still able to join the proceedings via Microsoft Teams.
The conference agenda was packed with a useful combination of updates from vendors, training, and planning discussions. Among the many topics covered were employee benefits, a new health benefit for managing chronic conditions, effective ways to help employees avoid burnout, how to manage staff through stressful situations, and concepts in cross-cultural communication. Matters related to insurance, employment law, recruitment, onboarding, and payroll processing were presented as well.
One particularly noteworthy moment in the conference came when the US HR Committee received the Excellent Award in Business Performance by SEI's Human Resources Division. The award was given in recognition of the tremendous work done by all committee members on their project to consolidate the payroll processes of US companies onto one system. Congratulations!
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Continuing an important and long-running tradition in Mexico, the 13th annual Safety Conference was held on September 7. It was attended by more than 200 people through a mix of in-person and virtual participation, from locations not only in Mexico but also the US, Brazil, Paraguay, and Japan.
To start the day, executives from Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems and host company CONTEC talked about the importance of both good practices and continuous improvement in order to achieve the goal of zero accidents. This was followed by the main part of the agenda, where teams from facilities around Mexico gave presentations on topics such as local best practices, new ideas on how to reduce risks, and ways to increase safety awareness among their coworkers. Each of the participating companies was recognized for their valuable contributions to this event.
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Pictured above in the group photo are the judges, event organizers, and others who attended the safety conference at CONTEC headquarters. Some of the participating teams are pictured below, including the team from ATR Laguna (top left) who won the award for best presentation. | |
Glorious Excellent Company Awards | |
At the end of each fiscal year, a team at SEI headquarters in Japan has the unenviable task of figuring out which of the Sumitomo Electric Group's 400+ companies worldwide did exceptionally well during the previous twelve months. What makes the task difficult is not just the number of companies involved, but also how varied the group is in what we do and in relative size (some companies employ hundreds of people, while others have a few dozen employees or less). But by using a complex formula that takes many factors into account — such as operating income, return on invested capital, safety, and compliance — SEI is able to come up with their annual list of Glorious Excellent Companies in recognition of outstanding performance. This year, the 27 recipients included three companies based in the Americas: Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal do Brasil, Sumiden Wire Products Corporation, and Sumitomo Electric Lightwave. Congratulations to all three companies! | |
Sumitomo Hardmetal do Brasil is located in Campinas, which is about 100 km from Brazil's biggest city, São Paulo. SHMB's primary business is the sales of cutting tools, and their location gives them convenient access to a large number of manufacturers in the area. According to company president Yoshihiro Kuroda, SHMB was recognized for a big increase in sales and profit in fiscal year 2021. Kuroda-san said "We are very honored to receive this award, as we have been able to increase our sales despite the COVID-19 situation. We will continue to focus on expanding our cutting tool market share in South America." This was the second time for SHMB to receive the Glorious Excellent Company Award. (Photo: Ivan Berni holding the award, Kuroda-san, and Rafael Ramirez with the certificate.) | |
For Sumiden Wire Products Corporation, this was the fifth time in their history to receive the GEC Award. President Brian Burr said "This award represents the tremendous effort on the part of every SWPC employee to make SWPC a truly great company and a great place to work." Brian's statement applies to all three of the company's locations in Dickson, Tennessee; Dayton, Texas; and Stockton, California. SWPC manufactures high-quality PC (prestressed concrete) strand for the construction industry. | |
Back row, left to right: Kevin Natterstad, Jon Cornelius, John Dampf, Jonathan Ellis, Masashi Tatsuta, Taichi Okada. Front row: Charlene Harris, Jennifer Parker, Brian Burr, Shohei Michiue with the award, and Tyler Jones. | |
In the infocommunications business, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave was recognized with their fourth GEC Award in as many years. "Everyone at SEL is delighted to receive this award four years in a row," said President Kazumasa Ozawa. "This was the result of everyone's daily effort in SEL and cooperation from all concerned, and it is a great encouragement for our company. As the communications market in the US continues to grow, SEL will make further efforts to expand our business and to contribute to the development of the Sumitomo Electric Group." | |
Pictured at Raleigh headquarters, from left, are SEL executives Patria Smith, Kazu Ozawa, and Kevin Mistele. Kevin is holding the GEC Special Award, which is earned by companies that achieve Glorious Excellent Company status for three or more consecutive years. | |
SEG companies at trade shows | |
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For many of us, this time of year means it's back to school, sweater weather, and the start of a new NFL season. Meanwhile, in the business world, it's also when things start to get really busy with trade shows. SEG companies were clearly no strangers in this regard in September, as we went on the road to meet with customers and prospects in our respective industries.
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave was especially busy, participating in four events in successive weeks: the Airport Council International's North America Conference in Minneapolis, Data Center Dynamics in Mexico, Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia, and the BICSI Fall Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas. This extensive participation was necessary as each of the events catered to a different market segment for SEL's products. (Top photo: SEL's booth in Las Vegas. Pictured below in Philly: Adam Broughton, Nicholas Miceli, Katie Tart, Jacob Godwin.)
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Over in Chicago, the International Manufacturing Technology Show — which calls itself "the largest and longest-running industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere" — took place over six days and brought in close to 90,000 visitors. Sumitomo Electric Carbide was at this massive show, with their products on display at three of their customers' booths and staff on hand at two booths to answer people's questions. This was the first time that SCI took a "spread out" approach at IMTS, and it certainly made sense given the size of the event. Their unique approach also gave SCI the opportunity to strengthen relationships with the various companies they helped prepare for the show.
Rounding out a very busy September were two events related to the automotive and mobility sectors: The Battery Show in Detroit, where Judd Wire presented their high-voltage cables and other products for electric vehicles, and the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles, where SEI had a booth and gave two presentations on what they have in store for the development of intelligent transportation systems around the world.
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This month we reached out to Sumitomo Electric Interconnect Products, where they produce some of the best heat-shrink tubing in the country and, as an active member of the Monozukuri Committee, recently logged one of the highest rates of kaizen participation among US group companies.
SEIP's kaizen system is managed by Manufacturing Operations Supervisor David Estes, who explained how the system evolved over many years into what it is today. "We started by combining several legacy 5S audit patrols into a single system and then started to expand from there," said David. One by one, different things were added to the system: a kaizen submission form, findings from safety inspections, data from daily 5S patrols, employee suggestions, etc. According to David, the key insight was to "recognize that kaizen is already contained in everyday actions." All of this information is now captured in a monthly report that SEIP uses to keep track of each department's kaizen-related tasks.
SEIP also shared an example of recent kaizen activity. In the plant, there are two machines with stainless steel decks that are walked on during repairs. As these decks can get very slippery, a few types of anti-skid coverings were purchased to reduce the slip hazard. But these retail products weren't very good: they were unsightly, easily damaged, and difficult to maintain. So, after a bit of brainstorming, the kaizen team decided to look at truck bed liners. They devised a three-layer solution (two liners with sand in between) and tested the idea for durability against chemicals and abrasion. The good results yielded a valuable lesson. "Our challenge in not finding an off-the-shelf product forced us to think outside-the-box and realize that the best solutions will not always be found in existing products or vendors," said David. The outcome of SEIP's resourcefulness in this instance can be seen in the before & after photos below.
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SEUHO was warmly welcomed by group companies in Brazil this month, when President Kazuo Oe and Senior HR Coordinator Naoki Muratomi visited three company headquarters there during the week of September 12. The first stop was SEI Brasil Soluções Ópticas, the local company in charge of communications products such as fusion splicers and fiber optic cable. This was followed by a visit to the cutting tool company Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal do Brasil, and then a meeting at Sumidenso do Brasil Indústrias Elétricas, which is a manufacturer of automotive wiring harnesses and the largest Sumitomo Electric subsidiary in South America.
At all three companies, the in-person meetings were a very constructive way for SEUHO to better understand the business situation in Brazil, to learn more about the companies' needs for corporate support and services, and to build relationships with their executive teams. We are grateful for the hospitality extended to us by the Brazil SEG companies.
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To click or not to click, that is the question … and when it comes to phishing emails, the answer is definitely do NOT click!
In the year since the Cofense anti-phishing program was introduced to US and Mexico companies, we've seen the click rate go up and down depending on how tricky the monthly test has been. This summer, the click rate was around 6% - 7%, which is not bad but still higher than our goal of staying under 5%. So how do we improve? One important step is to take the Security Awareness Training, a series of short courses that is also provided by Cofense. If you are at one of the 18 companies participating in the Cofense anti-phishing program, you will have received an email on June 20 with a link to this training. SEUHO encourages everyone who was notified to please complete all the modules in the training by the end of October at the latest. Let's all do our part to keep the company's cybersecurity defenses strong!
| Participating companies: ICS, JUDD, KPMC, NIRE, Santomi, SCC, SCI, SCM, SEDU, SEIP, SEL, SEMX, SESMI, SEUHO, SEUSA, SHMM, SWPC, WINA. (As of Sept. 19, the overall completion rate for the Security Awareness Training was 59%. Two companies, SCM and SEIP, have achieved 100% completion rate.) | |
Many thanks to this issue's contributors: Ivan Servin (CONTEC); Yoshihiro Kuroda (SHMB); Brian Burr, Jeffrey O'Brien (SWPC); Kevin Mistele (SEL); Jacob Godwin (SEUSA); Yo Hattori, Michael Byron, Matt Ugolini (SCI); David Estes (SEIP); Sylwia Wygonik, Naoki Muratomi, Haruka Hoffman, Shashi Sijapati (SEUHO). | |
The Sumitomo Electric Group, in accordance with the Sumitomo Spirit and the Sumitomo Electric Group Corporate Principles, strives to be a group of companies worthy of society's trust by conducting our business activities with utmost integrity. To learn more about our corporate philosophy, click here.
The SEG Code of Conduct is a statement of our shared values and the standards of conduct that are expected of each of us. It describes the fundamental principles and key policies that govern how we conduct business. The Code applies to all Company employees, officers, and directors, at every level. To download a copy of the Code, click here.
The SEG Compliance Hotline is an anonymous, confidential reporting system maintained by an independent third party, Navex, who immediately refers all hotline reports to SEI's Compliance and Risk Management Office. Please note that the SEG prohibits retaliation against anyone who reports concerns or raises questions in good faith. To access the hotline, click here. | |
This newsletter is published for employees of Sumitomo Electric Group companies in the Americas by Sumitomo Electric USA Holdings (SEUHO). To send us your thoughts, please use this online survey or send us an email. Thank you for reading this newsletter. | | | | | |
