Yamamoto Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Representative Director Shohei Yamamoto on avoiding the status quo and the importance of looking beyond Japan’s shores
Driven by Success
The greatest accomplishment in our business is to create commercially successful products. To achieve this, we must constantly seek out challenging new projects and ideas. If we are able to establish a reputation for constantly providing new items, it will inspire us and drive our employees to create more successful products. Business continuity can be achieved through persistence in new endeavors.
We will continue our efforts to enrich our product lineup. In the near future, we hope to compete more vigorously in the European market, a key manufacturing hub. Overseas expansion requires not only product appeal but also comprehensive capabilities including manufacturing capacity, equipment as well as competent employees and management. We believe that maintaining the status quo leads to stagnation. We are prepared to make mistakes and take detours. At times, its important to keep trying with a dynamic approach. There is no shortcut to success in business.
Cultivating the Right Environment
Our business philosophy consists of three elements: human capital management, coexistence and co-prosperity. We have worked to develop a good corporate culture and environment where our staff are motivated. They also help one another and share joy. Currently, we have around 200 employees and very low turnover rate. We also have 14 pairs of employees who are related to each other. In a family-like atmosphere, we maintain a workplace where employees are able to work from generation to generation and stay employed throughout their lives. Therefore, I have been working to memorize their faces and names, and actively communicate with them. For example, we have increased internal events such as company trips, softball events and bowling tournaments. These events present informal opportunities for me to communicate with our employees.
Every year I have two interviews with the heads of the company’s individual sections and we carry out activities on many subjects on a monthly basis. We need to take a look at our employees, not from a single viewpoint but from various angles.
When it comes to the growth of flowers, for example, soil is vital. Similarly building a solid foundation is vital to our company’s corporate culture. If the soil isn’t very fertile, plants will not sprout and flowers won’t grow regardless of how many seeds are sown. The same is true for humans. Instead of focusing solely on corporate income, we start with the development of an environment for employees and appoint a mentor for every new employee. They also keep a journal and we take meticulous care of such points.
In the past, we were told to learn by watching the actions of our superiors, but this method does not work today. I put time and effort into improving the environment of our company to create a positive corporate culture. Therefore, our strength lies in our solidarity. We aim to achieve new things through the united efforts of all our employees. Our staff can come together to concentrate on a single task or implementing reforms.
Expanding Horizons
Today, we also operate outside Japan and individual sections of our company have independent business models. This is the result of our solidarity and clear goals. However, there are still problems. About 14 years have passed since I worked to develop our overseas markets. I strongly feel that the Japanese business model is no longer effective outside the country. In Japan, we often hear that the customer is always right. I think that the business practice of placing excessive importance on customers is against global business trends, and is probably less acceptable in the West.
In fact, I realized this when I first became president of the company and I visited a trade show in Frankfurt with some executives to learn about global trends. At that time, Japanese companies appeared to focus solely on selling Japanese products to the rest of the world. However, I believe it is important to understand that Japanese products are not necessarily the global standard and that the global standard should be brought to Japan instead. I think that our company’s true approach will begin with that.
It is important to see things from the viewpoint of customers, but learning about the world and developing our working environment and other particulars is the top priority. To this end, we need to develop our overseas markets.
At the moment, we are the only Japanese manufacturer of washing machines aiming to sell outside Japan. From our overseas expansion, we learned not only about products but also about management styles, labor environments, work-life balance and many other things. Our learnings from our expansion into overseas markets led us to incorporate human capital management into our business philosophy. We hope to continue our attempts to enter overseas markets to prevent Japanese manufacturing from becoming isolated. I am convinced that our activities in the global market will help energize our company. We aspire to develop into a company that is truly needed by customers and to make Onomichi a city renowned worldwide for quality manufacturing of washing machines.
Well, it has been a truly difficult year for everyone. Together, we have weathered a global pandemic with all of the anxiety, sadness, and grief that that entails. Though I always heard about the possibility, I never imagined that it would happen. I can only hurt for everyone impacted by this disease and pledge to never forget the probability of another similar catastrophe. 2020 has refocused me on what is important:
My faith. The meaning and importance of my life.
My family.
My team. You, my other customers and vendors, and my employees.
The difference we make, together.
I believe that the refocus on these points will drive us at National Laundry Equipment to improve more and more every day, working to perfect our personal motions while working to better the industry as a whole. I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season, a happy new year, and a fantastic 2021. May we not only return to normalcy, but accelerate to a higher sense of well being. Thank you very much for your support this year. On to a brighter 2021! Happy Holidays!JD
Well, they stooped low enough to let us speak on the Laundromat Resource Podcast! It was an amazing experience, and Jordan is a really great guy. I hope you will follow him. His podcasts are full of info, and he coaches and consults as well. Check it out!
Check out this video! A west coast laundromat owner takes precautions against COVID-19, especially featuring the San-O3-Wash system to sanitize their wash wheels!
We at National Laundry Equipment hope you are doing well and are making it through the pandemic. Now is the time for a little good news, and happily, we have some:
Alliance has come to their senses and removed all restrictions on 3rd party payment apps (like FasCard). Please see the email sent to us below:
Effective April 1 we will be reverting our card system interface on our machines back to the pre-2020 state. This means that the restrictions on card reader programming and data that were put into place on January 1st of this year will be removed.
We have also created a simple mobile app available for Android phones that can remove the restrictions on 2020 machines already in the field. This app is available on My Alliance:
The COVID-19 situation continues to change daily, and I know
that you are looking to maximize your cleanliness in your laundry. Your NLE team has been looking into ways to
keep you and your customers safe. It
turns out, that doing laundry is an extremely important step in staying away
from illness.
First thing first, if you have a validated ozone system that
pumps ozone into your wash wheel, you are ahead of the game. Ozone kills viruses, and will effectively
remove COVID-19 in the wash wheel, along with bacteria as resistant as C. Diff. We have sold quite a few of the San-03-Wash
systems over the last few years, and we use them in our laundromats
ourselves. Our laundries showed a marked
improvement in sales because of the removal of the “laundromat” smell and the
feeling of a true sanitary clean.
We understand, though, that these systems are expensive, so
we wanted to offer a few tips to keep your laundry as clean as possible if you
are unable to install the ozone system.
It turns out that the rinse cycle is key to removing germs and
viruses. Unfortunately, unless you are
using 200 ppm bleach or 140 degree water (you are likely doing neither in a
vended laundromat), you probably are not killing much in your wash wheel. So, you need to surround those bugs with
detergent and flush them down the drain. For the time being, we suggest you use a high
level rinse cycle, and add an extract between wash and rinse. If possible, you may even want to add an
additional rinse cycle to make sure the machine has the most possible chance to
flush the virus down the drain.
Remember that incredible BEAM video game we featured at our Dickson location? Yeah, that thing is great. Keeps kids from crashing my carts all over the laundry, and keeps the customers happy that they aren’t getting smacked by kid-driven laundry carts. If you don’t remember, check out this video!
https://youtu.be/PAxCiPDJsws This thing really is the beez kneez. And, just for our Nov 8 open house, because they love us, they are offering a killer deal so you can have one too. Remember, National Laundry Equipment isn’t making a cent on these at the moment. We just believe the value to you is incredible. Put one in your laundry! You won’t believe the difference it makes in customer happiness. Without further nonsense from me, let me just show you what Ted, the Beam Video Game guy, sent me about the deal they are offering:
BEAM Leasing through Leasing Corporation of America:
The lease includes:
10 game installed when system ships
Remote monitoring of lamp bulb and on-site replacement.
12 new games per year
All maintenance and on-site servicing of the machine.
Due at signing:
2 months prepaid prepaid: $498
Origination fee approximately: $150
Optional buy-out after 36 months (lease term) for only $1500.
Remote monitoring of lamp bulb and on-site replacement.
12 new games per year
All maintenance and on-site servicing of the machine.
Can cancel after 18 months
Optional buy-out after 36 months (lease term) for only $1500.apply ** Typically offered only if non-qualified through LCA- some exceptions available Note: Depending on the size and nature of your business, we can offer, low-down payment, no-risk, money back guarantees. Ted also included the following:
One of the things our customers like is that it is mounted on the ceiling and runs automatically, it does not require any additional staffing. There is nothing to take, break, pick up or clean. To learn what customers are saying about BEAM check out: BEAM Case Studies
The following is a video from my martial arts customer. He told me one of his girls took a state championship based upon the eye-foot and agility training she received playing on BEAM. Check it out: Kids having a blast playing Rockball (you can’t make this stuff up)
BEAM provides an opportunity for your customers to play and socialize like nothing else on earth!. It is super fun!!!
1. Provides guest interaction and an “edge over competition”.
2. Increase NUMBER of customer visits and repeat business-Because it will make your place more fun to be..guaranteed.
3. Will have your customers coming in to play and coming back for more.
4. By giving young people in your facilities something to do you will make is safer and less prone to equipment damage.
It can drive business. You can use our professionally shot pictures and videos provided to you in our media kit. People will “like” and “share” and share them and help to drive your business. As I mentioned you can get this once you put down your down payment.
For sensory days you can use BEAM for kids on the autism spectrum. Check out our Anderson Autism Center
You can see all of our games here Link to our Games Page. If you want to do Mommy and me during the day when everyone is in school you can use our Learning Games SO, if you are ready to take the next step toward customer satisfaction, entertain those kids! Ted will be glad to help. Contact me and I will get you into touch with him pronto! Keep ’em turningJD
So the one complaint I had about AquaWing’s San-03-Wash system was that you had to hide it in the back room. Why not make it to where you can SHOW your customers this amazing machine…in a really tough case, of course! Well, they came through. Big time.
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO by clicking the link or popping this into your browser and hitting go.
You aren’t gonna believe this thing. Now marketing your advantage of ozone sanitation over your competitors will be incredibly easy. The thing glows a beautiful blue color when it is active. So now your store smells great, your customers love it, and the inexpensive guerilla marketing opportunities are endless. CRUSH YOUR COMPETITION!
A.D., owner of Duck River Laundry, called to tell me this about the system, “Since you guys put that thing in for me the 5 star reviews have been rolling in like crazy. People love this thing. And the place smells awesome!”
I am always looking for ways to help you remain the best laundromat in your area. This is a really good one way to do that.
Our latest video covering the power of Ozone in the coin
laundry – specifically the San-O3-Wash system just dropped:
We have run the San-03-Wash system for a full quarter of
business now. And, well, it has made me
a believer. I am not kidding about this…you
know that awful laundromat smell? The
one that smells like dirty water, feet, dead stuff, and gross? Yeah that smell. Well it is GONE. I mean GONE GONE.
We made these little stickers that we put on each machine –
that way the customer knows that they are getting something special with every
load. They are getting a sanitized wash
wheel. No longer do they have to worry
about Jack the Ripper putting his dead-people clothes in the wash wheel an hour
before they got there. It doesn’t matter…because
the San-O3-Wash system pumps germ killing ozone into each unit with every
load. This unit is the only unit that
delivers zero viable trace kill rate.
Let me explain how well this thing works. We have an OPL version of this system in the
Shelby County Department of Corrections.
They have been running it for 4 years.
In those 4 years, they have experienced zero…that is right…zero
outbreaks of MRSA or Influenza since installation. Prior to installation, they experienced those
outbreaks regularly.
AND, not only does it sanitize…it clears the clothes of the
crystals left behind in laundry chemicals during the rinse cycle. That means the clothes feel softer and look
brighter. Customers notice that.
I am saving for one to put into my Dickson store. Here is why:
my Ashland City store did 20% more business second quarter of this year
than it did the second quarter of last year…while my Dickson store was
basically flat…
The thing pays for itself AND gets rid of the yuck. Imagine that.
Call us anytime for pricing and availability. The San-03-Wash system by AquaWing is the way
to go.
Aquawing Ozone Systems has miniaturized their industrial technology so that we can use the power of ozone in our home washers and dryers. It should eliminate that frontload washer stink and provide a softer wash while sanitizing my wash wheel. I am very excited to test this little unit out on my home washer, and I will let you know how well my family likes it in a few months!
