An excellent accident-reduction strategy:

This might be one reason Japanese trains have an envious safety record.

 

We could learn much from them.

 

The Japanese skill copied by the world

 

 

Good idea before broadcasting on a given frequency. I know of one gliding club that used to teach put your left index finger above and to the left of the ASI after a winch/autotow launch failure to make sure you have enough smash (1/2 * rho* V^2) before trying to do anything else.

 

 

Excellent idea. It does greatly increase the focus. So now I will point to & reread this message to ensure it is good-quite a few correspondents on many sites would do well to check their post for clarity before posting.

 

 

This might be one reason Japanese trains have an envious safety record.We could learn much from them.

The Japanese skill copied by the world

Could be part of it, but there's a lot more including respect for the job and respect for the crew, and the crew's culture of responsibility.This is a freight train crew!

 

 

 

Attention to detail on load restraint.

 

 

This might be one reason Japanese trains have an envious safety record.We could learn much from them.

The Japanese skill copied by the world

Thought you said “twins”, a la the Mitsubishi twin.

 

 

I wonder if the Japanese have not gone the "multi skilling" route and and have individuals well trained and excelling in their jobs, taking pride in their work.

 

Australia has alot of individuals half skilled in multiple roles. As they say " A jack of all trades but master of none".

 

 

I wonder if the Japanese have not gone the "multi skilling" route and and have individuals well trained and excelling in their jobs, taking pride in their work.Australia has alot of individuals half skilled in multiple roles. As they say " A jack of all trades but master of none".

Perhaps that is a factor, DU. I’ve seen a great decline in that pride in workmanship in this country, but I suspect the main reason is their culture’s methodical approach to any task.

 

 

I wonder if the Japanese have not gone the "multi skilling" route and and have individuals well trained and excelling in their jobs, taking pride in their work.Australia has a lot of individuals half skilled in multiple roles. As they say " A jack of all trades but master of none".

I've had a 40 year relationship with them; the young ones are worldly enough that they're pretty much like us. I had four engineers out who were to design a new Prime Mover, and was taking them around to meet our most significant fleet owners so they could find out what specifications (other than their own), the key operators wanted. The first interview was with a heavy truck industry Icon, and all was going well, with the man giving them pure gold information they would never normally be able to obtain. I notice done of them had fallen asleep, so tried to kick him under the coffee table, but it was too low and the coffee table skidded across the floor waking him up. Outside, I rounded them up and told them I'd cut the balls off the next person to go to sleep. There was a panicked answer: "Oh no he close eyes to concentrate 100% on what Mr ..... saying" That certainly what they will do sometimes, but this young guy wasn't up to the standard of his predecessors and we never saw him again; probably got a fritter stand in the Ginza.

 

 

I also sometimes close my eyes to assist concentration in long meetings.

 

 

I also sometimes close my eyes to assist concentration in long meetings.

Their processes are based on an exceptional standard of logic, eg some of the rail stations process up to four million people per day, and when a train comes in, a lot of people are walking up the stairs. One night I suddenly realised the stairs were 20 people wide, and ten rows were walking up the left side and ten rows were walking down the right side, and we were walking in each others' footsteps as a unit; shifted a huge volume of people in minutes. The best person I ever worked with was a Japanese who was very logical and smart as a whip. About 8:30 one morning I got a call from a body builder in Brisbane wanting a quote on a truck, to suit his tilt-slide tray, for the Pakistani Army. I didn't know what the Pakistani truck specification was (no ADRs for a start, even which side the steering wheel was, so I took down what he could tell me which wasn't a lot other than the tender closed in Pakistan at 4 pm that day (Australian time). A couple of other truck manufacturers had just quoted Australian RHD models (not even close to spec). I told the customer we would be back to him, and emailed my short list to my friend in Tokyo. About 30 minutes later I got a phone call from the customer: "JESUS! he said; I got this email from someone in Japan starting with "G'Day mate", and asking a whole lot of questions; what do I do?" "Answer them" I said, "then he'll get back to me, and I'll send the quote to you. He got his tender in for a LHD truck to Pakistani road regulations and Pakistani Army specifications by the deadline, just about an impossible job but for the systematic and focused processing.

 

 

Attention to detail and the pursuit of perfection are two primary Japanese traits that have enabled them to go from a totally defeated and destroyed nation in 1945, to a nation that produces world-leading equipment, ranging from aircraft to machinery and plant, right through to electronics. In many areas, the Japanese dominate, and their automotive industry is typical.

 

Less well known is the fact that if you want a world-class-leading item of production machinery, be it anything from a robot to a 4000 tonne press, it will be Japanese.

 

 

Speaking of Japanese attention to detail and the pursuit of perfection; did anyone catch the documentary last Thursday (SBS Viceland) about Hayao Miyazaki, the famous animator, and director of The Wind Rises (among lots of others, including Porco Rosso)?

 

THE WIND RISES

 

 

The feature length documentary (called Miyazaki: the Kingdom of Dreams and Madness) was shot inside the Ghibli Studios over a full year during the making of The Wind Rises (an animated biopic about Jiro Horikoshi, renowned designer of the Mitsubishii Zero.)

 

MIYAZAKI:

 

THE KINGDOM OF DREAMS AND MADNESS

 

 

 

I missed the first half of the documentary and was hoping to pick it up on SBS On-Demand, but, so far, I haven't seen it. But I did discover I could buy it (the doc) on YouTube premium so I will watch it in full later.

 

It's a beautifully done film in the observational style. We learn a lot about the guy and his philosophy and his way of working just by hanging out over a long period; listening in - with the magic of subtitles - to his ordinary conversations with colleagues and employees.

 

Miyazaki is an amazing person and, as it happens, a total aeroplane nut.

 

(But who among us finds that a strange combo!!?? ;-)

 

 

Here's Wiki about the doc, the man and his more aeronautical films:

 

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness - Wikipedia

 

Hayao Miyazaki - Wikipedia

 

The Wind Rises - Wikipedia

 

Porco Rosso - Wikipedia

 

(The fact that he named his animation studio "Ghibli" after an airplane - the Caproni_Ca.309 - indicates just how much of an aviation fanatic he has always been.)

 

 

... and furthermore, when art imitates life, life fights back:

 

Stills from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ftsTVwTfs:130

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52raDbtNpa4

 

 

Their processes are based on an exceptional standard of logic, eg some of the rail stations process up to four million people per day, and when a train comes in, a lot of people are walking up the stairs. One night I suddenly realised the stairs were 20 people wide, and ten rows were walking up the left side and ten rows were walking down the right side, and we were walking in each others' footsteps as a unit; shifted a huge volume of people in minutes. The best person I ever worked with was a Japanese who was very logical and smart as a whip. About 8:30 one morning I got a call from a body builder in Brisbane wanting a quote on a truck, to suit his tilt-slide tray, for the Pakistani Army. I didn't know what the Pakistani truck specification was (no ADRs for a start, even which side the steering wheel was, so I took down what he could tell me which wasn't a lot other than the tender closed in Pakistan at 4 pm that day (Australian time). A couple of other truck manufacturers had just quoted Australian RHD models (not even close to spec). I told the customer we would be back to him, and emailed my short list to my friend in Tokyo. About 30 minutes later I got a phone call from the customer: "JESUS! he said; I got this email from someone in Japan starting with "G'Day mate", and asking a whole lot of questions; what do I do?" "Answer them" I said, "then he'll get back to me, and I'll send the quote to you. He got his tender in for a LHD truck to Pakistani road regulations and Pakistani Army specifications by the deadline, just about an impossible job but for the systematic and focused processing.

but isn't Pakistan RHD, like Australia?

 

 

but isn't Pakistan RHD, like Australia?

Maybe my memory’s LHD, but we quoted a specification which met Pakistani road rules thanks to my friend.

 

 

but isn't Pakistan RHD, like Australia?

On another occasion I'd organised some trucks to be sent from Japan to the US to be converted to electric power. The US distributor found out about it and got over-excited and tried to take over communications with the Body Builder. One instruction I'd given to the builder was that the transmission selectors had to be welded in second gear, which at the electric motor's maximum rpm just came in under the maximum road speed to be imported as a machinery item, so not needing Australian Design Rule compliance.

We had booked shipping to Melbourne, but I received an email from the US distributor to say he had inspected the trucks(he didn't know what the specifications were) and had shipped them to Yokohama, and by the way had told the body builder not to worry about locking the transmissions because we could do that.

 

After explaining to this gentleman that Yokohama wasn't in Australia, I arranged the Yokohama-Melbourne leg, and emailed my friend in Tokyo asking him to get a couple of mechanics and go down to the Yokohama wharf with an oxy set and weld up the selector mechanisms because the trucks couldn't be landed in Australia.

 

He said "I see what I can do"

 

A few weeks later I got this email: "As you know we are prohibited from entering the wharf, so could not take welder. However I was given special permission to check whether trucks had correct VIN numbers. In one pocket I had expoxy pack A; in other pocket expoxy pack B. Now selectors NEVER move!

 

The trucks cleared the wharf, and we beat Elon musk by about ten years.

 

You couldn't buy assistance like that