Having won gold medals, do you have any advice for those following in your footsteps?

Kubo, Plastic Die Engineering I’m still going to compete next year, but after that I will be teaching the younger cohort as an instructor.

Plastic die engineering has become a competition of really high scores, up around 99.1 or 99.2, where even a single flaw on the molded item costs you the win. I’ve learned firsthand that, to compete at a high level, you need to be meticulous about the details in more areas. I want to pass those lessons on to our younger colleagues.

As gold medal winners, you will no doubt be able to play a leading role in the monozukuri genba. Is there anything about the monozukuri mindset that you want to emphasize?

Shota Sugata, Car Painting

That’s a tough question… In my current workplace, this year we adopted the slogan “Working with care for others.” After the Skill Competition Section I will be joining the development genba, where the “others” that we work for are ultimately our customers. I think it’s important to approach our job with these people in mind, putting the customer first.

Yuto Hoshino, Car Painting

I’m in the same field as Sugata and will be posted to the same development unit, but right now all I’m doing is painting. I handle the repair and painting process by myself, but in the workplace, we will be painting pieces that others have worked on in previous stages, then pass them onto the next step, be it inspection or repair.

I will be handling one task within a larger workflow, and as Sugata just mentioned, it’s about “working for others.” If someone else is going to work on this product after me, how can I make their work easier? Someone else might need this tool—where should I put it to make their life easier? I think it’s important to consider the people who come before and after you.

Lastly, what are your future goals and ambitions at Toyota?

Takaya Koishi, Autobody Repair

To put it simply, I want people to see me as a craftsman.

Right now, I only have these very specialized skills for the autobody repair competition, so I want to broaden out, while also going deeper into the rich world of auto repair. I want to be able to do work that no one else can.

Hoshino, Car Painting I don’t want to be satisfied with things as they are. As a WorldSkills competitor I get scored on my work, and I have a target of how many points I want to get, but of course the workplace isn’t like a contest. Your skills aren’t measured in points, and it’s difficult to grasp your progress. But when I’m out in the workplace I want to try many different tasks, so that I can keep expanding my range into various fields beyond painting.

Karouji, Mechatronics If the younger cohorts were able to quickly reach my current skill level, it would be easier for them to progress even further. To help them along, I want to make sure that we can smoothly exchange information, including ways of teaching and learning, so that anyone can replicate the work I do.

Yamasaki, Mechatronics I want to keep taking on new challenges. At the moment, the competition allows me to push myself in many ways, and I think the experiences I have gained and the friends I have made will stay with me.

I know that I can’t do the job on my own, so as I continue to expand my skills, I also want to improve my communication ability. I look up to people who continue to seek new challenges and bring others on board, and that’s why I want to keep pushing myself.

That’s a unique aspect of mechatronics, where you compete in pairs.

Yamasaki, Mechatronics I think the way you convey even a single idea can influence a person’s ability. It’s good if you can tell someone what you want them to do, but if the two of you have different ideas in mind, it’s inevitable that things don’t get done as you imagined. Within our pair, I think we were able to refine our communication to do away with such situations.