Interview

I’m a new employee (joined in 2024) and am now studying hard every day as a ship manager in the Sales Division. For someone like me who had never previously dealt with ships in any meaningful capacity, there is so much that I need to learn.
Performing my duties to the best of my abilities and increasing my knowledge of ships—albeit gradually and thanks to the help I generously receive from senior colleagues—are what I find rewarding about my job right now. In the Sales Division, knowledge is obviously critical but so is the ability to communicate effectively with clients and other employees within the company. A project begins when the Sales Division determines what the shipowner requires and issues work orders accordingly to the various sections within the company to set the different tasks in motion. Some students probably feel that they are lacking when it comes to communication skills, but I felt as if the kind of communication skills you need for this job differed completely from the kind of communication skills you employ before you finish school and enter the workforce. What you need for this job can probably be learned while you interact with many other people in the course of doing your job.
I look forward to the day—however distant it may be in the future—when I can be placed in charge of a project to build a ship that skillfully reflects the elicited desires of a shipowner.

How a day
at work unfolds

My main duty is ship design. After meeting with the client, I can be involved in everything from the basic design of the hull to the layout of equipment and other aspects of the detailed design of a boat. I don’t just sit in a chair and draft drawings. I also board the ship and perform checks on it while it is being manufactured and on its performance after it has been completed.
What I find most rewarding about all this is the joy that a client feels knowing that a fine ship has been built. I can’t adequately express in words the sense of achievement I feel when a client is pleased with a boat that I have been working on for more than a year as reckoned if you were to include the planning phase.
I loved building things from before I had joined this company but I had no interest in shipbuilding itself. I gradually came to love building ships after I joined this company and took part in the shipbuilding process. These days, I can’t help but look for ships on the water whenever I go out to the seaside in my spare time.

How a day
at work unfolds

Broadly speaking, the Manufacturing Division consists of the woodworking, shipbuilding, and lifeboat departments.
The woodworking department is primarily focused on creating wooden molds that constitute the foundation of the vessel. The shipbuilding department builds fishing boats, sightseeing boats, and other large vessels. The lifeboat department builds vessels intended to be attached to large passenger ships and other such vessels for the purpose of rescuing people. In addition, various FRP products are also manufactured as are goods that are a part of people’s everyday lives.
I have experience working with shipbuilding and lifeboats. When it comes to the former, I learn about manufacturing lines for ships in general and about the equipment with which ships are equipped. When it comes to the latter, I learn about global standards of specifications and quality. I find myself growing daily thanks to the help I am given by my supervisors and senior colleagues.
Given that summers are hot and winters are cold, the Manufacturing Division is a section that is physically demanding. Yet, I find that this job is very rewarding whenever something I’ve been working on takes shape, and I can see that it actually works as intended.
If you believe that you can keep up with us on the physical front and are even a bit interested in FRP products, why not come work with us?

How a day
at work unfolds

The operations performed by the Production Control Division primarily consist of purchasing, the management of internal and external outsourcing arrangements, the maintenance of factory equipment, and inspections.
When it comes to purchasing tasks, I arrange materials, find new suppliers, and meet with the Manufacturing Division based on drawings supplied by the Engineering Division. Even when I run into difficulties from time to time, the positive relationships I have built up over time helps tremendously.
To see a ship being built from scratch with materials prepared when you are carrying out the manufacturing process and then see it as a completed vessel slipping its mooring is a magic moment indeed!
My job gives plenty of opportunities to demonstrate competence to those who might not have a problem dealing with others but who would rather not have to make sales quotas and the like.

How a day
at work unfolds

The Quality Control Division is thoroughly committed to maintaining quality control with a view to providing clients with the highest standard of quality.
Quality is not simply all about showcasing the workmanship in products. Quality also encompasses such notions as safety, production, and the environment. To facilitate all of these aspects, the Quality Control Division complies with ISO standards and carries out operations by harnessing the PDCA cycle and statistical quality-control methods.
My quality control tasks consist of ISO-related maintenance, product inspections, investigations of the causes of defects, and process management through data analysis. I believe these are important tasks that are influenced by how decisions are made.
The feedback we receive from satisfied clients after products are delivered makes me feel each and every day that the work we perform as the “guardian deities of Nishi-F” is rewarding and a source of great pride.

How a day
at work unfolds