Hello, this is Kamii from the Production Department.
I mainly work as a project manager for site construction involving system development and collaboration.
Previously, I worked as an exterior designer at an iron casting manufacturer, a construction consultant, an SIer, and an advertising production company, and now I am in charge of project management for web production and development at Monosus. However, I have felt that the common thread in any industry is that "upstream processes (design) determine quality."
Through these experiences, what I keep in mind when making things is:
Source principle: Quality is built into the design.
That is it.
Today I would like to explain why I came to this conclusion, sharing some of my own experiences.
The origins of originism lie in the world of exterior design
When I started working, I worked at a foundry manufacturer where I was involved in the design and engineering of exterior products installed in public facilities such as bridge railings, station plazas, promenades, and parks.
For example, bridge railings are made up of hundreds of products installed in succession over a length of several hundred meters, so even though they are original designs, they are only mass-produced.
In addition, metal products are difficult to process and weigh anywhere from tens to hundreds of kilograms, so transporting and setting them up requires a lot of manpower and equipment. So even if you are dissatisfied with the finished product or there is a defect, you cannot just take it home and make a quick fix.
For this reason, manufacturers generally have independent quality control departments.
The most important thing in the quality control of exterior products is strength and safety, because ensuring the safety of users is our number one priority.
And the design details tend to be the lowest priority.
This desire to do something about this became my approach to design, and it continues to this day.
Experience in communicating intentions to subsequent processes through design drawings
Here we will briefly introduce the casting manufacturing process.
To make a cast product, two types of molds are prepared.
The first is a sand mold, which is the female mold into which metal is poured.
The second is a wooden mold, which is the male model used to make the sand mold.
The ruler used to design these wooden molds is called a "casting ruler."
The manufacturing method in which molten metal is poured into a cavity in a sand mold to create a shape is called "sand casting."
Figure: Sand casting manufacturing method
When molten metal is poured into a sand mold, its volume shrinks as it cools and hardens.
Therefore, the blueprint for the wooden model that will serve as the hollow form for the sand mold must be created using a ruler (a casting ruler) with larger markings than the length of the finished product, to match the shrinkage rate of the metal.
As a result, the details and packaging of the finished product often differed from what was intended in the design.
It is common for bridges and walkways to be constructed almost a year after the design and planning. Depending on the timing of production, the design and production of wooden patterns may be outsourced to a local pattern maker. Therefore, designers rarely have the opportunity to check the production drawings of the wooden patterns.
It was often disappointing when the details of a finished cast product were different from what I had imagined.
So, what do we do?
I made it a point to create detailed drawings of the detailing myself.
In the case of bridge railings, the design department creates construction drawings for installation on the bridge, and production drawings for making the product.
These production drawings will illustrate all the size differences for each installation location, but the finished details will be specified in detailed drawings of standard-sized components.
We asked the design department to take charge of creating drawings for these standard-sized components.
However, if the manufacturing difficulty increases too much or the amount of work increases, the construction period will be extended and the manufacturing costs will be affected. I repeatedly asked my senior designers and senior colleagues at the factory for advice and was told not to go too far, and reflected this in the drawings.
It was during this period that I started to become conscious of conveying my intentions to subsequent processes through blueprints.
Examples of cast iron balustrades: Azumabashi Bridge, Tokyo (left), Makurabashi Bridge, Tokyo (right)
From product design to planning design
Later, as part of local redevelopment, we also became involved in the exterior design and planning of the entire sidewalks of an entire block.
I also began to plan and design what to place where within the space of the city block. And I began to find the work interesting in connecting the knowledge of experts and craftsmen in each process, from design and planning to manufacturing and construction, and the technology of each manufacturer.
This desire grew so much that in my 10th year in the workforce, I changed jobs to become a construction consultant, shifting my focus from product design to plan design.
Example of park planning CG (left), Example of promenade: Yokohama Waterfront Promenade (right)
Source principle: Quality is built in by design
Public works projects are carried out in four steps: steps 1 to 3 are carried out by construction consultants, and step 4 is carried out by general contractors.
- Basic plan: Developing a business outline, examining comparative plans, and planning the budget
- Basic design: Design, review and selection of comparative plans, calculation of approximate construction costs
- Detailed design (implementation design): Ordering construction, creating construction level drawings, calculating quantities, calculating construction costs
- Construction: Manufacturing, construction
1. Basic plan 2. Basic design takes six months to a year, and 3. Detailed design takes one to several years.
Additionally, the design for each stage may be outsourced to different companies.
For this reason, quality control is strict at each design stage, because any design flaws in the upstream process will directly lead to a deterioration in quality in the downstream process.
The construction consulting firm where I worked implemented quality management based on ISO 9001.
During my three years here, I have worked on a variety of projects, but what I have always been conscious of is
"Quality is built into the design." The importance of building quality into the upstream process (source-based approach).
This is also true in system development and web production, and is of utmost importance.
In the fields of manufacturing, architecture, and civil engineering design, the accumulated knowledge about perspectives, frameworks, and efforts related to quality control has been systematized, and I believe that it can be applied to web production as well. I will write about these on another occasion.