Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd., located at Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, with Fumikiyo Uchioke as President, held Wire Harness Production Skill Competition 2008 at Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, on July 8. The Skill Competition is a competition of wire harness production skills by contestants representing SWS and its group companies that produce wire harnesses in Japan and overseas.

SWS group companies produce wire harnesses in more than 20 countries around the world, and strive to realize a system of producing globally standardized best quality at any production base in the world. Wire harnesses are labor intensive products, and therefore improving operators' skills is vital to producing excellent products. We need to improve the skills of all operators who work at SWS group companies around the world. To this end SWS has adopted various measures to upgrade operators' skills, with visualization and benchmarking of skills serving as major tools for human resources development.

In the Skill Competition, contestants representing SWS group companies around the world come together and compete on production skills, with the aim of improving operators' skills by raising awareness of their current skill levels, gaps from the top level, and want of skills. The Skill Competition was first held in 2003, with this year marking the 6th event.

This year's Skill Competition was held with 93 contestants from 31 companies in 15 countries. Each company formed a team comprised of three members and competed on quality, precision and time in four categories of basic wire harness production skills: image training, cutting and crimping self-inspection, wire harness assembly, and taping.

SWS Group is promoting human resources development globally through visualization and benchmarking so as to improve the skill level of the entire group.

<Scenes from this year's competition>

Wire Harness Production Skill Competition 2008 results: