17 October 2007 Pilgrimage
I’d love to visit the Nikon factory in Sendai, where they produce the professional bodies and lenses. Too bad it’s on the other side of Japan. Here they assemble things in “cell” fashion, where small teams construct each camera by hand from start to finish. No assembly-line production here. That’s for the Thailand factory, which I’m sure produced my camera body.
Ever since I worked as an interpreter for Toyota/GM at a manufacturing plant in Fremont I’ve loved factories. They are complex, intricate places, and the way different processes and systems fit together is incredibly interesting.
I also remember when I interpreted for an industrial chemist on his tour of a pharmaceutical plant here in Japan. The way his face lit up with enthusiasm as he described why this plant’s way of filling phials was the best was truly great to behold.