Exaquantum Traveling Sales Diary

It is in the middle of winter here in Japan, and that's true also for the economy. Nowadays, wherever I go in Japan, I am not hearing customers say, "Oh, I love Exaquantum. Let's get it!" as frequently as I used to. But as I keep saying in this diary, once a customer installs Exaquantum, he or she immediately sees its benefits. For instance, Exaquantum helps the customer visualize problem areas in production processes. Product quality and production efficiency increase, less waste occurs, material costs are minimized, and profits increase. Well, it seems these days that our customers' budgets are too tight, or perhaps they have no budget at all.

I spent two weeks at the end of December visiting several customers at an industrial park in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture. For the first few days, I was enthusiastically promoting Exaquantum, telling them, "Once you install Exaquantum, you'll know how mighty this tool is!" But as I went along, I often ended up hearing bad news such as a decision to shut down a production line or a plan to cut production volume in half. Rather than promoting Exaquantum to my customers, all I could do was sit there, listen to their stories, and encourage them. I often concluded these meetings by saying things like, "Don't be discouraged." It's winter for my business too. And now that I am no longer on the road as much, there will be no travels to tell you about in this diary. I hope spring comes soon.

Under these circumstances, it is no use telling customer stories. Instead, I would like to talk about some dreams that I have. In my diary's sixth entry (May 2008), I wrote about how I would like to reduce the burdens of operators and other personnel. The following looks at how we can do this.

Yokogawa released its new CENTUM VP  DCS in February 2008. The "VP" stands for VigilantPlant, Yokogawa\'s key business concept. The word "vigilant" refers to keeping a keen eye out for danger and always staying awake and alert. As I put it, this is about CENTUM VP making a quiet and ideally functioning plant possible by ceaselessly watching over it and freeing operators from having to perform many routine tasks. In the past, the main function of CENTUM was to control a plant and its equipment so that operators would be free to focus on the monitoring of operations. It did nothing to make their monitoring tasks easier. Something was needed to improve this. But while traveling around Japan, I heard many stories about how Exaquantum helped improve problems at their plants. So as you see here, my mission has not been just to eat and drink lots of good stuff!

Typically, DCS, PLC, SCADA, and other types of systems play a role in control and operations. But even when manufacturing is fully automated by a DCS or PLC, people still need to be involved. There will still be problems with production efficiency and quality. Production can only be optimized if experienced operators stay involved and make use of their knowledge and experience. And though intangible, their experience and knowledge can be passed on to others. I have also wondered how such intangible knowledge could be converted into tangible figures and statistics. I have sat down with customers and considered how we could make their jobs easier. We looked at how we could save information during an operation that could be helpful at a later stage, readily access that information at a shift change, integrate all information in one display screen, navigate operations like with a car navigation system, and monitor several related loops in one display (rather than monitoring one loop at a time).

During the group discussions at the 7th SBP Users Meeting  in November, a customer mused that it would be convenient to just be able to stand in front of a DCS and yell out an order for it to save information when something unexpected happened. Wouldn't that be cool? If the information scattered around the system could be integrated and if I could search for and access whatever information I needed, it would be very convenient. Through these discussions with our customers, I can begin to see which way we should go. I wish to share some of these little insights with you in later diary entries.

A Quality Restaurant Hidden Away in Mitaka

I have been boasting about being an evangelist for all the delicious foods around Japan. But this economic crisis is keeping me from traveling as freely as I used to. I wonder when I can once again fly to Hokkaido or Kyushu without hesitation. Yet, I cannot stop eating out, so for this article I went looking for places in the neighborhood near my Tokyo office.

I am aware that the Exaquantum traveling diary is distributed around the world and I know my mission is to introduce Japanese gourmet foods. So far I have introduced buns filled with red bean paste, rice dishes, udon noodles, sea urchin, ruibe, squid, tako-yaki dumplings, and okonomi-yaki pancakes. For those who knew only Japanese tempura and sushi, these foods might have seemed rather strange.
I do not expect the visitors to Yokogawa Headquarters to fly all the way to Kyushu or Hokkaido, or to line up in front of a bakery in Odawara. But please keep in mind my diary and the good foods that I have introduced when you visit Japan. If I have been any help to you in deciding what to eat, that's my joy.

This time, I have selected a small restaurant right behind my office building. Suehiro (soo-eh-hee-roh) serves a great variety of high quality dishes at a very economical price. It is not listed in the Michelin Guide, but what they serve is absolutely gorgeous.

I ordered tuna sashimi (raw fish) first. The proprietor took several big lumps of tuna out from a refrigerator and explained to me that, "This is oo-toro (very fatty flesh) and chu-toro (medium fatty flesh) from a Pacific bluefin tuna. This is the red meat from a southern bluefin tuna. And this is bigeye tuna." They all cost me the same - 10 thick slices for 1,000 yen, enough for two persons. I asked for four slices of the oo-toro and six of the chu-toro. They all just melted in my mouth and I found myself wondering whether these tuna fish would have melted if someone had just peeled away their skin while they were swimming in the ocean. My face also was about to melt with the delicacy of the dish. The proprietor continued, "If the owner of an expensive sushi restaurant telephones in an order for blocks of this tuna from the Tsukiji Fish Market, it costs about 8,000 yen per kilogram. But I know a good wholesaler there who will give me a 50% discount if I go all the way to the market. If we find some imperfections in the fish, he will give even more of a discount." So, several times a week, he gets up at four o'clock in the morning to buy fresh fish in Tsukiji. He also buys oysters, sea urchins, and other good things and offers them at a reasonable price. Can you believe that 10 slices of the best toro sells for only 1,000 yen? It's unbelievably cheap.

After the tuna, he suggested that I should eat some oysters.  "I bought several kinds of oysters today. These are from Hokkaido, Ishikawa, Tokushima, Nagasaki, and Hyogo. Four for 850 yen. Do you want some? "How could I deny this temptation? So I asked him to pick out four that he recommended. It was surprising that the four oysters had four different tastes. It is difficult to find the right words to describe this but my tongue told me the subtle differences. The other day, a flock of oyster lovers who had traveled far descended on this restaurant and had a big party, eating different kinds of oysters to their hearts' content. They had discovered the place by reading about it in an Internet blog.

The proprietor went on to tell me that the most delicious foods were of the seasonal variety. Now that it is wintertime, I recommend hana-wasabi. It is the stem and leaves of the wasabi (Japanese horseradish) plant. It is harvested just after the flower buds form. Hana-wasabi is served immediately after being boiled, immersed in cold water, drained, and shaken in a sealed container. In this way, the stem and leaves get a very strong and spicy wasabi taste. It is difficult to get this even at the Tsukiji Fish Market, and it is usually served only at extremely expensive restaurants (ryo-tei or kappo).

Let me highlight Ikura-don, the specialty of the restaurant. This is served only in autumn, which is the best season for ikura (salmon roe). After filling a bowl two thirds full with rice, the proprietor takes ikura that has been dipped into soy sauce and begins spooning it out onto the rice until the guest says "Stop" or there is no more room for the ikura and it begins to spill down the sides. People say that ikura-don is best when the white rice is fully covered by this ikura. But this one here is more like white rice floating amidst a sea of ikura! It costs only 650 yen!

I should stop now or I will keep writing forever. One thing is certain: this restaurant only serves delicious foods and aims above all to see its customers go home satisfied.
Why don't you drop in there next time you come to Yokogawa Tokyo?