Is our BCP ready? - Manufacturers jolted into production line suspensions by Kumamoto quakes

I mentioned in my previous blog that we have made progress to deal with the emergency situation caused by big earthquake after the hard experiences. But the following articles remind me that we need to address BCP (Business Continuity Plan) more practically. We have faced supply-chain issues in the manufacturing at the offshore Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 in 2011, and we do again... Let's see how big companies are doing. 

 

Image Credit: Jiji.com

 

Newspapers reported "Toyota Motor Corp. said Sunday, Apr 17 it will shut down vehicle assembly in Japan over the course of this week because of parts shortages stemming from the two strong earthquakes in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Japan.
 

The world’s biggest automaker posted the announcement on its website Sunday, Apr 17.

"The shutdown will begin on Monday, Apr 18 at a factory in Kumamoto and progress to other plants through Friday, Apr 22."

Toyota said Continuity of operations would depend on the availability of parts.

Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc. has already suspended output at three vehicle assembly plants in Fukuoka Prefecture since Thursday, after a magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto Prefecture.

On Tuesday or later, operations will be halted at Toyota’s four flagship plants in Aichi Prefecture and at Toyota Auto Body Co. and Toyota Motor East Japan Inc. Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., both Toyota units, also suspended many of the production lines for Toyota vehicles.”

Among other automakers, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. suspended its production lines in Okayama Prefecture from Monday night to Tuesday.

Many other firms were forced to suspend operations and evacuate workers.

Aisin Seiki Co. has stopped production at two plants in the city of Kumamoto that make engine parts, while microchip maker Renesas Electronics Corp., also in the city, has suspended production of semiconductors for vehicles and sees no prospect of resuming operations anytime soon because of continuing aftershocks.

Officials at Honda Motor Co.’s motorcycle plant in the town of Ozu in Kumamoto Prefecture are having difficulty assessing damage at its facilities, a company source said.

Operations were partially restored at a Panasonic Corp. plant in the town of Nagomi in Kumamoto Prefecture after Thursday’s temblor, but were suspended again after the stronger quake early Saturday.

A Sony Corp. semiconductor plant in Isahaya, Nagasaki Prefecture, was partially shut after the Saturday quake, and employees who were working the overnight shift evacuated.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said production was suspended at its semiconductor and engineering plants, both in Kumamoto.


.....Apparently their BCP (I assume they have BCP in place) don't work well....

 

 

Image Credit: Yahoo.com

 

Genpact, the global BPO company I am working for, has 70 operation centers in 19 countries. For the customers who need service in English, there would be enough back-up when any of them got suspended by earthquake or any other disasters. For customers who needs service in Japanese, we have 4 operation centers in China. They also would be back-up each other. Overall there would be enough facilities to ensure Business Continuity in Genpact. But as observed above, we need to check if we put practical BCP in place which will work well in the real situation.

 

If you would like to learn more about BCP, please visit Wikipedia:

 

English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity_planning

 

Japanese https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%8B%E6%A5%AD%E7%B6%99%E7%B6%9A%E8%A8%88%E7%94%BB

 

Would like all readers share their thoughts or opinions in the comments below. Would love to hear from you!

 

 

Please visit my LinkedIn page as well J

https://jp.linkedin.com/in/riekokoguchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share what we’ve learned from Earthquake - Strongest earthquake since 2011 strikes Kumamoto area in Japan

A magnitude-6.5 earthquake knocked down houses and buckled roads in Kyushu on Thursday, Apr 14. The temblor logged a 7, the highest level on the Japanese intensity scale.



Image Credit: Wikipedia

As Kyushu residents attempted to get through a sleepless night, another strong earthquake rocked Kumamoto early Saturday, Apr 16 injuring more than 1,000, bringing the combined death toll from Thursday’s quake to at least 48.

The magnitude-7.3 quake hit at 1:25 a.m. and registered 7 again on Japan’s seismic intensity scale of 7 in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was more powerful than the temblor that barely a day earlier.

 

Image Credit: Jiji.com

 



The damage caused by Saturday’s quake and others in its wake has included collapsed houses, landslides, blackouts that have left more than 200,000 households without power, and water outages in 385,000 homes across Kumamoto, Oita and Miyazaki prefectures. The total number of quakes exceeds 860 since Apr 14, and 190,000 people have evacuated to the cars, tents and public buildings.
This is the strongest earthquake in the nation since the offshore Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

 

Image Credit: Jiji.com

We have learned a lot from Great East Japan Earthquake as a nation. The actions taken right after the quake were very different from 2011 – quick and organized this time. I would like to introduce some examples:

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani announced on Friday, Apr 15 that the ministry would dispatch up to 25,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel to Kumamoto for rescue operations, with 5,000 more than initially planned, and he did it next day. Co-working with local rescue teams, they saved many lives who asked for help under collapsed houses.

 

Image Credit: Jiji.com

 

There are several people who are missing due to the landslide, and the heavy machineries are used for finding them. These heavily machineries can be operated remotely against the risk of having another landslide.

 

 

Image Credit: Jiji.com

 

The convenience-store industry moved quickly as well. They have a nation-wide supply-chain network. They had their supply-chain in Kumamoto recovered much faster than 2011, and provided aid of foods and drinks to the evacuees.

 

 

SNS became powerful tool in the emergency situation. People can easily confirm the safe of the family and friends in the impacted area, and exchange the necessary information by SNS. For example, the media reported that one woman who evacuated to the city hall sent a message seeking toilet papers, and they were sent quickly from across the country.

 

Image Credit: Yahoo.com

 

Of course there are still many areas to be improved, but we have definitely learned and made progress in many ways to deal with the emergency situation caused by the big earthquake.

 

Recently there are big earthquakes happened not only in Japan but globally. As an earthquake-ridden country, Japan has developed technologies, measures and processes against earthquakes for many years. I think it would be useful to share these with the world so that we can save lives as much as possible and minimize the damages by earthquake.

 

 

Here is the Japan's traditional and modern earthquake construction techniques including quake-resistant building methods. You may be interested in: http://www.nhk.or.jp/japan311/tmrw2-trad.html

 

Would like all readers share their thoughts or opinions in the comments below. Would love to hear from you!

 

 

Please visit my LinkedIn page as well J

https://jp.linkedin.com/in/riekokoguchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Leadership - givin or can acquired?

Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill, regarding the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Wikipedia says, in US academic environments leadership is defined as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.”

Several years ago I attended the seminar about Leadership held by the global HR consulting firm in Japan. There were hundreds people attended and most of them were HR or people in the management position.

The speaker was a professor of the very famous MBA school in US. He has been teaching leadership for many years, and has been involved in the selection and development of CEO in the major US companies.

During the seminar, he introduced several leadership theories from well-known to neo-emerging. One of the theory he introduces is Situational Leadership theory developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in 1970-1980. I like it and utilize most personally. It says that the right leadership style will depend on the person or group being led. The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory identified four levels of maturity M1 through M4:

• M1 - They still lack the specific skills required for the job in hand and are unable and unwilling to do or to take responsibility for this job or task. (According to Ken Blanchard "The honeymoon is over")
• M2 - They are unable to take on responsibility for the task being done; however, they are willing to work at the task. They are novice but enthusiastic.
• M3 - They are experienced and able to do the task but lack the confidence or the willingness to take on responsibility.
• M4 - They are experienced at the task, and comfortable with their own ability to do it well. They are able and willing to not only do the task, but to take responsibility for the task.

Maturity Levels are also task-specific. A person might be generally skilled, confident and motivated in their job, but would still have a maturity level M1 when asked to perform a task requiring skills they don't possess.

A good leader develops "the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self-motivated rather than dependent on others for direction and guidance." According to Hersey's book, a leader’s high, realistic expectation causes high performance of followers; a leader’s low expectations lead to low performance of followers. According to Ken Blanchard, "Four combinations of competence and commitment make up what we call 'development level.'"

• D1 - Low competence and high commitment
• D2 - Low competence and low commitment
• D3 - High competence and low/variable commitment
• D4 - High competence and high commitment

In order to make an effective cycle, a leader needs to motivate followers properly.

I used this theory for my day-to-day management, and teach people as HR trainer sometimes. I believe it works while it is old theory. 

I don’t describe all theories introduced in his speech here, but I enjoyed whole his speech very much. But most interesting thing was, at the end of the speech, he mentioned that top of the top, i.e. CEO level cannot be developed. It is a Given talent. 2^nd level (CxO) leadership can be acquired by the development programs based on the various theories, but CEO level leadership is a Given. I think this is the honest feeling he got through his long experience as a member of CEO selection in major companies. It seems like the denial of his entire speech (he was laughing), but I understood very much what he said, and agreed with him. Even through my limited experience to work with such high level leaders, I feel it is true.. and it is true regardless of the nationality. In Japan we have similar saying that only the person who has "Utsuwa" (= a person of high caliber) should be the top. Utsuwa is not skills nor technique - it is more about personality or humanity. Each person has each size of Utsuwa, and should take appropriate level of responsibility based on Utsuwa.

 

Leadership is deep – no conclusion at this point, but I would like to continue to think if it is given or acquired. It is very interesting topic.

If you are interested in the Situational Leadership theory, you can see more details in the following link: http://situational.com/

 

High Context / Low Context Culture

As businesses continue to expand globally, employees are asked to partner with co-workers around the world. Building strong relationships is difficult enough when everyone is in the same location, but when separated thousands miles away, it requires taking time to understand cultural differences and adapt to those differences.

Recently I did a small research of “High context” “Low context”.
Wikipedia says, “It refers to a culture's tendency to use high-context messages over low-context messages in routine communication. This choice between speaking styles indicates whether a culture will cater to in-groups, an in-group being a group that has similar experiences and expectations, from which inferences are drawn. In a higher-context culture, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain. Words and word choice become very important in higher-context communication, since a few words can communicate a complex message very effectively to an in-group (but less effectively outside that group), while in a low-context culture, the communicator needs to be much more explicit and the value of a single word is less important.”

Lower-context cultures are: Australian, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Israeli, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Switzerland, United States.

Higher-context cultures are: Arabic, Brazilian, Chinese, Filipinos, French, Greek, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Indian, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latin Americans, Nepali, Pakistani, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Southern United States, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, South Slavic, West Slavic.

What I am interested in is that Indian, Chinese and Japanese are in the same category. I am working closely with Chinese and Indian employees across Asia in Genpact, and feel cultural differences. But it reminds me that we tend to focus on the differences rather than similarity. It would be good to have balanced view when we discuss about culture.

I will continue to discuss about how to work with co-workers in the world from various angles going forward.