Reflective Journal 5

This week we had a talk again instead of our regular class but what made it different this time was that the speaker was an invited guest from Canon Opto Malaysia. As taking photographs is my hobby and also because I do own a Canon DSLR, I was looking forward to this session as it may shed light on the inner workings of Canon Inc and how they come about to produce such great products.

 So on that day, our guest speaker was none other than the Senior General Manager of Canon Opto Malaysia, Muhammad Azlan bin Amran. From his introductions, we got to know that he graduated from a university in Japan which happens to be the same university that Dr. Kamal graduated from and they used to be senpai - kohai. He joined Canon Opto Malaysia in 1990 and has been there ever since.

After a brief introduction on himself, he then gave an introduction on the company. So Canon Opto Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. has been here quite a while and has been established on the 14th of December 1988. The products that they manufacture are EF lenses, optical lenses (spherical lens) , pentaprisms as well as digital compact cameras.

Canon EF lens collection

 One of the EF lens that they manufacture is the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

Specifications
Optical construction	6 elements in 4 groups inc. 1x aspherical element
Number of aperture blades	7 (circular)
min. focus distance	0.25m (max. magnification: ~1.5.5)
Dimensions	68.2x22.8mm
Weight	130g
Filter size	52mm (non-rotating)
Hood	barrel shaped, optional
Other features	STM motor

Mr. Azlan explain to us that these lenses contain an electrical motor to control the auto-focus and that different lens may use different kinds of motor. The above lens for example uses a Stepping motor (STM). This kinda motor produces less noise compared to standard motor and a cheaper alternative to the Ultrasonic lens (USM). He also explained that a single lens are made up of a few smaller lenses because it would be expensive to manufacture a whole single lens with the specification and dimension that is required.

Next Mr. Azlan went on to explain about the manufacturing life cycle that is adopted by Canon.

 The above is the manufacturing phases that is adopted in Canon Opto Malaysia. During two of the phases we can see that EQCD method is used. What is that mean? It stands for Environment (E), Quality (Q), Cost (C) and Delivery (D). This means they have to take into account these four criteria before they manufacture a product. The production must not harm the environment, the product has to be of quality, cost effective and delivered on time.

As Canon Inc is a japanese company, the people working there are following the work culture of the japanese. Mr. Azlan explain that the people in Canon Opto Malaysia hold on the word "HORENSO" while doing their work. The word HORENSO (報連相) is made up of three other words. 'HO' comes from the word Houkoku (報告) which means report. 'REN' comes from the word Renraku (連絡) which means contact and 'SO' which is from the word Soudan (相談) which means consultation. This meas that during work we must always report to the progress of the work to the boss and always keep in contact and if there is a problem consult. 

He then explain about the 3 'GENS" which is GENBA (site) Genbutsu (actual thing) and Genjitsu (reality). As a person in charge, when there is a problem, we should always go the site of the problem ourselves and see the actual thing instead of just hearing it from our subordinates and assess the situation. 

That was it on this week's lecture.