2024 ISTQ Report

2024 JUSE ISTQ-S Event Report

The International Seminar on TQM, hosted by JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers), was held from Sunday, August 25th to Wednesday, September 4th, 2024. This fiscal year, we plan to hold the seminar twice. The current session, held as the “Summer” edition, saw participation from 16 people across 4 countries.

For the first time in four years, the seminar has been held as an in-person group event since last year. Indeed, the benefits of in-person interactions were clearly felt, with lively exchanges of opinions with the lecturers and discussions among the participants, making it a very fruitful seminar.

In particular, one of the topics of this seminar was the unprecedentedly large typhoon that approached and landed on Japan during the seminar, meandered for an extended period, and caused extensive damage in many areas. Unfortunately, the seminar program was significantly affected, and due to the suspension of the Shinkansen for several days, a visit to Kyoto, a symbol of Japanese culture, was not possible. Additionally, we were forced to make significant adjustments to the schedule for company visits in the Chubu region.

Hence, we were obliged to stay in Tokyo for the entire duration of the seminar. However, prioritizing the safety of all participants, we rescheduled the plan and proceeded with the seminar while closely monitoring the typhoon's path and impact.

Therefore, on Monday, September 2nd, the seminar was switched to a virtual factory tour and business exchange, connecting the JUSE seminar venue in Tokyo with the Tahara Plant of Toyota Motor Corporation online, which we had planned to visit. Due to the kind cooperation of Toyota Motor Corporation, the exchange proved to be a very meaningful event.

On the following day, Tuesday, September 3rd, the Shinkansen resumed normal service. We were able to visit the "Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology" and "Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd." and take a plant tour to see the actual site as planned, in the same way we did during our visit to the Komatsu Ibaraki Plant.

We sincerely apologize for any concern this may have caused the participants, but thank to their willing cooperation, we were able to successfully complete the seminar without incident. We believe that the stay in Japan and the seminar were truly memorable experiences for all participants. We hope the knowledge and experience of TQM gained from this seminar will be useful in their own quality management activities.
The next seminar will be held as “Winter” on the following dates. We look forward to your participation.

JUSE International Seminar on TQM-2024 (ISTQ-Winter)
February 3 (Mon.) - 13 (Thu.), 2025
https://www.juse.or.jp/english/education/international.html


♦Group photo (Professor Iizuka and Managing Director Onodera)


♦The scene from the lecture


♦Group photo (President & CEO Sasaki)


♦The scene from the celebration ceremony


♦Asakusa Sightseeing (Tokyo) / Fortunately avoiding the impact of the typhoon, we were able to go sightseeing in Tokyo under cloudy skies.


♦Visit to Komatsu Ibaraki Plant


♦Visit to Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology


♦Visit to Toyota Auto Body Fujimatsu Plant