We Are Tomodachi Spring / Summer 2018

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22Typically, when we think of automated machine tools, we imagine the mass production of identical products, but HILLTOP Corporation, a metalworking company in Kyoto, runs a profitable, groundbreaking system to fulfill precision machining orders for small and single-item lots, such as aluminum prototypes and one-time production items. Their work is precise and relatively low-cost, yet HILLTOP can deliver products in as little as five days after a new order comes in.What makes this possible is the HILLTOP System, the company’s proprietary production control system. The system digitalizes tasks workers had traditionally performed manually. A programmer enters commands and the system automatically implements them with the machinery. HILLTOP Executive Vice President Shosaku Yamamoto, who has been ahead of the times in his pursuit of completely mechanized manufacturing processes, created this masterpiece.“My dad ran a small steel workshop machining auto parts,” says Yamamoto, reflecting on his past. “Workers were stuck in front of machines like in the Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times. The workshop made a lot of parts. Every day, the same items were made in the same way.” Yamamoto inherited the factory from his father, but he believed that “human beings should use their brains to their full potential and engage in creative work.” That idea was the starting point for the HILLTOP System for manufacturing a wide variety of products in small quantities or as single units. “Employee motivation is more important than the outward appearance of efficiency. Even if we streamline with mass production and hold down costs, in the end, it won’t inspire the workers. We’re better off computerizing simple tasks and leaving them to machines.” Yamamoto, who 35 years ago reached conclusions that would find expression in today’s AI, IoT and 3-D printers, set to work on digitalizing his workers’ skills and knowledge. Although Revolutionizing Single-Item ManufacturingProcessing machines with HILLTOP’s trademark pink color scheme are arranged in neat lines inside a factory. Most operations are automated and require little human intervention.