Diversity management, in which, regardless of gender, nationality or age, diverse human resources and values are proactively promoted, is an important social responsibility for Hikari Kikai Seisakusho, but also the strength of our business which generates added values.

To provide fair opportunities for highly-motivated employees and incorporate diverse human resources and values in our business, we engage in a variety of activities.

For recruitment, we ensure that all applicants are selected fairly based on their skills and motivation, not on their gender, nationality or age, and proactively engage in recruitment activities for women and foreigners in order to continuously promote diversity in the company.

For employees, we have established a grade system and a performance evaluation system which allow for a fair evaluation of the efforts and the level of target achievement. Also, we have introduced a treatment system appropriately corresponding to such evaluation to create an environment where everyone can work with objectives and good morale.

In a biannual interview with their superior, employees are judged also from the viewpoint of whether they exert their abilities without any issue that runs counter to the policy of diversity management and as required, it is reflected on the position or work quality.

We have formulated the declaration of health management so that, based on our corporate philosophy,
“Be Professional!”, every employee can achieve the best possible performance as professionals and realize the maintenance and enhancement of health and their work-life balance.

We have established the Safety and Health Committee as a company-wide organization in order to check whether these activities are conducted properly and introduce appropriate measures.

The Safety and Health Committee conducts risk assessment once a month to check whether the safety and health of employees are ensured and whether the risk of health damage is minimized.

Overtime work is also covered by this assessment and the committee grasps its situation of each department and employee and takes the initiative in the review and implementation of measures for its reduction. When there is no improvement, it may take measures such as a transfer to a different position in collaboration with the Personnel Department.

Diversity management cannot be promoted without creating a new work environment and system.
With an aim to promote diversity management, and in particular, active participation of women, Hikari Kikai Seisakusho has been proceeding with the introduction of a system to support motivated employees so that individual circumstances such as childcare and nursing care do not impede their career paths.
Also, we have launched workstyle reform toward work-life balance for all employees.

Quality contains every element required for manufacturing such as safety, precision, durability, stability, etc. and is an absolute requisite for delivering added value to our customers’ manufacturing floor.
Hikari Kikai Seisakusho gives top priority to quality management as a commitment to our customers and our machine tool factory, a true hub of manufacturing, is certified for ISO9001(Quality Management System)”, highly regarded international quality standard, and implements a world-class quality management system.

Also, the Quality Assurance Section supervises company-wide quality management and every process ranging from design, procurement, finishing, inspection to delivery, all of which work in liaison with the machine tool factory, shares similarly stringent quality management standards for continuous enhancement of quality.

Our proprietary techniques, nurtured since our foundation, constitute an indispensable base for providing high-quality and high value-added products and services which continue to satisfy our customers.
Also, a variety of techniques nurtured by Japanese SMEs are vital assets for manufacturing not only in Japan but also in the rest of the world.
Hikari Kikai Seisakusho has established an in-house “Manufacturing Training Center” to endeavor to hand down the “master craftsmanship”, pride of Japanese manufacturing, from skilled technicians to younger members.
We believe that the preservation of techniques and its transmission to the next generation is one of the important responsibilities we need to be aware of.

In the manufacturing industry, due to a labor shortage and changing industrial structure, challenges in the transmission of craftsmanship and the sustainability of its related supply chain have started to surface.
Hikari Kikai Seisakusho also focuses on the development of technology and products with a view to solving such challenges.

These days, a shortage of various machining technicians becomes one of the elements of uncertainty in manufacturing.
For example, machining of tool tips made of PCD (diamond sintered body), typical difficult-to-machine material, requires an extremely high level of machining skill due to its property and has been entrusted to skilled technicians with long-time experience, knowhow and hunch.
However, with aging technicians and labor shortage, the development of technicians and the continuation of machining in this area have become serious issues in many manufacturing floors.
Therefore, Hikari Kikai Seisakusho analyzed the skills of these skilled craftsmen, digitized them, and by taking advantage of our track record in the manufacturing of grinding machines, one of the best in Japan, succeeded in the automation of machining of PCD tool tips (PCD tool tip grinding machine, HPCD-150S), thus contributing to the solution of the challenge in the manufacturing floor struggling for securing best practice machining technique.

It is an important element for manufacturing machines to have a viewpoint of designing for safe, stress-free high-precision manufacturing by reducing the burden on operators.
For example, these days, there are many senior members and women working actively on the manufacturing floor. But there are cases where the height of the operation panel, the weight of the operation lever, etc. place a heavy operational burden on some operators.
Here, our women members play a central role to proactively incorporate the idea of universal design in the design of operation-related parts which affect the burden on operators.
Up to this day, with light, easy-to-turn handles, switches located conveniently at hand, easy-to-understand operational interface, safety-focused machine design, we have been engaged in solving shop floor challenges not only in terms of performance and functions but also in terms of design. Going forward as well, we will pursue both maximization of productivity and stress-free features to manufacture “operator-friendly” machines.

Periodically we accept interns from high schools, technical colleges, universities and graduate schools in Mie Prefecture and provide opportunities of job experience and technological experience.

Furthermore, we proactively cooperate with seminars related to local human resource development and provide donated lectures.

To make our technology useful for the development of local industry, we have been cooperating with local universities and businesses to engage in a variety of research and product development.

In 2012, as a project adopted by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), we participated in the technological development project for beam condensing unit for solar thermal power generation in collaboration with National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College and Mie University.

In 2009, with an aim to diversify the prefectural marine products industry into the sixth sector industry through commercialization of marine products and promote employment, Mie University and the Daisan Bank collaborated with each other to launch a workshop, “Agricultural, commercial and industrial collaboration “. In support for the workshop, we applied our machine tool technology to develop a high-quality automatic
smoking cooker machine. This activity was also recognized as “Tsu City SME Promotional Project” for Fiscal 2009.

In 2014, entrusted by Mie Industry and Enterprise Support Center, we launched a development project as a Strategic Core Technology Advancement Program ("Supporting Industry Program") in collaboration with Mie University, Mie Industrial Research Institute, Sumitomo Electric Hard Metal Co., Toyota Industries Corporation.
In this project, we proceeded with the development of finished tip shape of high-performance cutting tool used to machine downsized engine parts and the development of dedicated machine tool that can realize such tip shape and achieved their commercialization.