The Manufacturing & Technology Department is engaged in workstyle reforms to ensure that employees can work with a sense of fulfillment even as they help enhance the competitiveness of the Company. To this end, a task team was launched, with its membership including manufacturing operators as well as Head Office staff, who exercise leadership. Employing unconventional approaches that defy prevailing norms and customs, these reforms are focused on (1) adapting to the diversification of on-site operations; (2) implementing workload reduction measures designed to go into immediate effects; and (3) achieving a shift of core working hours to daytime.
In FY2019, the task team formulated the outline of workstyle reforms targeting production engineers at business units charged with facility operations. Thus far, the department has succeeded in cutting back on workload by 8% following the launch of measures that went into immediate effect in December 2019.
From FY2020, workstyle reforms are under way at a growing variety of business units, including maintenance departments, subsidiaries and affiliates, such as Idemitsu Plantech.
In line with the personnel system, we have developed a set of rank-based performance targets for assessing level of personal growth to ensure that individual status regarding the pursuit of new challenges, dedication to daily operations, and the acquisition of specialist qualification is better reflected in employee evaluation. These targets came into effect from FY2020 as the first stage of the Reform 1. As the second stage, the targets were subsequently aligned with the diversification of employee duties and the differing pace of personal growth in FY2021.
Launched in December 2019, these measures helped reduce workload by 8%, which is in excess of the target of 6%. In FY2019, we placed the utmost priority on reducing the burden to be borne by young employees, an employee group with a particularly high rate of attrition. At the same time, having learned that the motivation of young employees may have dampened by their working side by side with senior colleagues and veteran operators struggling with excessive workloads, we have also reduced the overall workload at on-site operations. In FY2020, we went on to launch measures to reduce the workloads of management-level employees. This initiative was focused on helping them resolve issues associated with securing sufficient time for communication with on-site operators.
After completing the outline of reform measures in FY2019, in FY2020 we launched detailed discussions regarding facility improvements along with undertaking the identification of issues via trial operations. In these endeavors, the Hokkaido Refinery was positioned as a model plant.
The goal of these reforms is to ensure that facility inspections and operations are carried out mainly during the day to reduce the physical burden placed on employees. Simultaneously, we will strive to reduce the size of the night-shift team specializing in surveillance, incident response, and troubleshooting. In these ways, we will enable employees to allocate greater resources to planning, discussion, and other tasks aimed at creating higher added value so that they find their jobs more rewarding.