Distinguished Japanese Delegation Visits ASU

On May 30, 2016, two distinguished guests from Japan – Mr. Toshio Horikiri (President of the Toyota Engineering Corporation – TEC) and Mr. Hamano Michihiro (Director of the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “The Japan Center” in Moscow) – visited Astrakhan State University.

As management of ASU is highly interested in the management system of Toyota as an excellent example to follow (in particular, its quality management and lean production), the two distinguished guests’ visit has become a real gift for our staff.

The guests could see our facilities, our educational process, as well as principles and tools of providing our external and internal clients with appropriate services. Mr. Toshio Horikiri and Mr. Hamano Michihiro were impressed with our University’s attitude to the lean production system, to preparedness of its organizational and human capital to implement kaizen into its overall activities by applying a number of specific tools and techniques.

Mr. Horikiri gave our management a large lecture whose theme was “Kaizen in Educational Processes” 1.5 hours long. He told about the history of kaizen and the reasons for its development. He paid special attention to HR development, knowledge, motivation, and active participation of staff. The audience asked him questions actively: our management had a unique chance to learn all the details of the lean production system right from the person who directs it. The two Japanese guests remarked that staff of ASU knows tools and principles of kaizen very well.

Then Mr. Horikiri had an interactive meeting with key members of our faculty, active students, and top managers involved in active implementation of lean production into overall activities of our University. The discussed questions concerned mainly specifics of applying kaizen both to provide educational services in general and to deliver a particular lecture or event. Over 300 people took part in the discussion; each of them gives a very good feedback.

As our staff members say, the visit of the two distinguished guests from Japan gave them a lot to enhance their personal and professional skills. As they confess, a live talk with the introducer of ideas of quality enhancement was definitely a powerful stimulus for their further self-development.