Remebering Ohashi san - Part 2

In continuation of my first article on Ohashi Sensei, I would like to share some more experiences.

One fine morning my cell phone rang and it was our safety officer. I was informed about an accident, which had occurred, very near to our plant. In fact a few meters away from the main gate. I will not go into finer details due to obvious reasons, but let’s just settle with the fact that a truck carrying our material had rammed into the compound wall of our plant. The truck driver was injured and was administered first aid.

Needless to say,?I rushed immediately, but Ohashi san was already ON the truck. Yes, he was standing ON the truck bed. I hauled my big body and went to where he was standing. He was simply observing and then finally said, there was something wrong with the narrative of the driver. I inquired why and he got down from the truck, walked back about 150 – 200 meters, showed me a grazed pole, showed me the truck bed with peeled paint marks and then gazed into my eyes. I said, could it be possible that the truck had grazed against the pole and Ohashi sans eyes brightened.

He would often say ‘We should be like Sherlock Holmes when accidents occur in a Plant. Only then, could we find the true cause of an accident and take permanent countermeasures’. He would advise me not to listen to the myriad number of useless things, which many useless people would offer, but to see things with my own eyes, think, contemplate and then arrive at a decision.

Gemba de itte, me de mite, ato de kangaite, Mondai o wakatte kudasai.

(In the Japanese Language it means Go to Gemba, see it for yourself, think about the issue, understand the issue).

We later found out the driver had not given the proper narration of what had happened and had driven the truck in a not so optimal condition.

Ohashi san was a tough taskmaster and he would make the Logistics guys park their Forklifts and go around inspecting the forklift. On a few occasions I have seen him finding a few scratch marks and would inquire why it had happened. He would then try to understand if the drivers had some tight corners near the walls or Racks. The drivers would always be on their toes and maintain their machines properly.

On another occasion, we found that many used wooden pallets were being scrapped and fresh wooden pallets were being made. I inquired my team for this expense, and promptly came the reply that most of the pallets were damaged and not worthy of use. As the plant manager, I was also responsible for budget and this was an operational expense. I did a Genchi Gembutsu or Gemba visit and spent time looking at how the pallets were returned, where were they unloaded and in what condition they arrived.

Ohashi san’s coaching was working here and for the shock of many people, we found that most pallets were in good condition and could be reused. Then our team sat for long sessions and we developed a very systematic and logical storage method, with proper shelter along the external wall and Ohashi san appreciated this idea from the bottom of his heart.

I relocated to Germany a few months later and after a few years, Ohashi san wrote me a mail that he would be visiting Czech Republic and enroute to Japan he was passing through Stuttgart, where I live. He wanted to meet me and I very happily acknowledged his mail. My wife and me drove to his hotel and spent a good one-hour sharing laughs and recollecting the good times.

Ohashi sensei is now retired and lives in Japan. I wish him good health and a happy retired life. I will always cherish the great learnings from him and the good time we spent.

The views expressed are that of the author only and not of AGCO GmbH.