Copyright © 2020 Marujin Sun Apple Co,Ltd. All rights Reserved.
Fruit selection process Employee interview
Industrial Processing Dept.
Akemi Nakayama
※Second from the right in the photo
Q. Why did you join the company and what was your career after joining?
I joined the company as a part-timer and have been working there for about 15 to 16 years. Recently, I was approached to become an employee, and now I am working as an employee.
When I first joined the company, I was in the package team. The packaging team is responsible for packaging the selected apples in plastic so that they can be easily sold at supermarkets and other retail stores. After that, I experienced the whole process at the second fruit selection area, and then returned to the Packaging Team, most recently as the team leader.
Currently, I am learning from the section chief so that I can be entrusted with the management of the entire field.
When I was asked if I would like to become an employee, I honestly thought it would be better for a younger person. However, I was happy to hear from the Chairman and President again, so I decided to do my best and accepted the offer. The current section chief has a good grasp of everything in the field, and when I ask or discuss anything with him, he explains it in an easy-to-understand manner. The section chief is someone who can see the whole picture and also pay attention to details. I don’t think I will be able to come close to his work right away, but I would like to steal what I can while I can work with him and meet the expectations of the company.
Q. What is the most difficult, challenging, and interesting part of your job?
When a large number of orders come in, and we all help each other to complete them, I still feel a sense of accomplishment.” How many more hundreds!” We all call out to each other, “How many more hundreds! It’s more fun to be busy and moving around than to be bored and not know what to do.I think.
Q. What are your future goals and what do you want to work on?
I’ve just started my position, so I’m still exploring, but I’d like to build teamwork. I want to build a good team.
Processing Department
Manager, Processing Department
Hideaki Sakuraba
Q. What made you decide to join the company and what kind of career have you had since joining?
I have been with the company for 17 years. Before that, I was a truck driver and worked for a road-related company outside of the prefecture. After returning to my hometown, I worked part-time as a driver at an apple store and got to know people in the apple industry. One of the employees who was working for this company at the time asked me if I wanted to work with him, and I joined the company.
In the beginning, I worked as an outside worker (delivery), and after a couple of years, I became in charge of shipping. After two or three years, I became in charge of shipping, and from there I entered the field. I have never worked mainly with forklifts, but have been involved in general field management.
Q. What are the difficulties, rewards and interesting aspects of your job?
My job, as a manager, requires me to both oversee the entire operation and follow up on the details to see if each member is having trouble with something.
However, it is difficult for me to do that by myself. If you try to see the whole picture, you will not be able to follow up with members, and if you focus on following up with members, you will not be able to see the whole picture. It is a position that requires balance.
I always check on each member to see if there are any problems and follow up on them, and at the same time, I make sure that the overall work flow is not stagnant and progressing as planned.
This is probably the hardest part of my job right now. I think it would be very different if I had someone who could be my right-hand man, so it would be great if I could develop such a person from the young members of the team.
What I find most rewarding in my work is when I feel that I have done more than I was instructed to do.
If each and every one of us can work with this kind of awareness, I think we will find our work more interesting.
Q. What are your future goals and what do you want to work on?
Our company is in a transitional period of change right now. The section chief who has been the general supervisor of the site for many years is retiring this fiscal year and will be replaced by a section chief, so I will have the role of supervising the entire site.
We are now in an era where greater efficiency is required. By making better use of the machines that are currently in the No. 2 fruit selection area, we should be able to select fruit with fewer people and better quality. This is not to say that a small number of people is better than a large number of people, but at the moment, one person checks for both flaws and color, so we are relying heavily on the human eye. If we can reduce the volume that depends on human eyes and hands, we will be able to process a larger volume and select better quality fruit. I would like to keep working on these issues.
