Competitions were held in 9 categories including welding, steel cutting, painting, and transportation which are crucial for shipbuilding. At each venue, participants presented accurate, cool-headed demonstrations of technique while the judges strictly checked the safety and quality of their work.
At the closing ceremony, factory manager Masahiro Kawakita made a speech. “The foundation of shipbuilding depends on respective workers skills. These Tsuneishi Skill Olympics are a good chance to emphasize those skills. From now on, please make efforts to improve your skills.” Uniforms, with“GOLD” or “SILVER” embroidered letters as a proof of honor, will be presented to the award winners later.
Succession of skills is one of the biggest issues for the Japanese shipbuilding industry. Tsuneishi Skill Olympics is taking an important role to pass down Tsuneishi Shipbuilding's production skills to the next generation through training young technicians as well as presenting the skills they acquire in their daily work.
Since 2001, when this competition started with only the welding category, it has been expanded every year to include painting, furnishing, and transportation categories as requested by the employees, becoming a whole-factory competition now.
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