KAI FACT magazine
HISTORY OF KAI vol.8
FACT  No.09


One factory one product,
The desired production system is in place.

Saijiro's original creative ideas and execution power have greatly developed Kai. The In-house newsletter was one of them on which he put great importance. In 1959, ‘Sanwa’ from Sanwa’s sales division, and ‘Mutsumi’ was launched from Sanwa cutlery’s production division two years later. In the editing of Sanwa, a cartoonist from Seki, Awasuke Fukuchi participated. Although it was a lot of work before being independent as a cartoonist, it was a grandiose task that Fukuchi handled, from illustration to planning and manuscripts to distribute them to all the employees who numbered at about 100 at the time. In the 1964, there were also issues, including contributed essays by Ruriko Asaoka, Ichiro Arishima and Kiyoshi Atsumi! Although it was a pretty unique issue among others ‘Sanwa’, it was realized by the effort of Fukuchi. In the other news letter ‘Mutsumi’, Mr. and Mrs. Endo's private story, such as the president's home visit, was taken up and became a bridge connecting Saijiro to the employees. The in-house newsletter became ‘KAI’ in 1970 and has been published as ‘Kai family’ since 1991. It contributes not only to PR for employees, but also for mutual communication among employees. The spirit and importance sending out the newsletter also live in this ‘FACT magazine’ distributed in Japan and abroad.

On the management side, in 1978, the first factory in Oyana was completed. This factory was built to improve the productivity and quality of the razors. Together with knives, nail clippers, scissors and special blades, the establishment of ‘one factory one product’ system was finally realized as Saijiro wished. In addition to this factory and headquarters, Sajjiro established a branch and sales offices in various places, and major distribution centers in major bases. At the time shipping from several centers to whole sellers and retailing shops was done and inventory management at each center was quite confusing. There was also a mountain of inventory left over when they gathered all their products in Seki. Although the computer system introduced in Seki in 1969 was groundbreaking, there were a lot of hardships to build a system that could digitize all of the stock, orders, and shipping management. Through twists and turns, distribution centers were consolidated in two places, The Niigata and Seki and computer system managing inventory, order placement and shipments was also completed. The direct delivery system from the factory was finally in place. The direct delivery of beauty products started in 1972 from the warehouse newly built in the Yayoi Town in Seki, and the direct delivery system of all products was established by the completion of the Seki Distribution Center in the following year.

And in April 1980, Saijiro’s first born, Koji Endo joined Kai. He was sent to Kokuyo, one of Kai’s clients, immediately after joining the company. Saijiro said that he wanted Koji to learn the spirit inherited from Kokuyo which continues to this day. The spirit of selling a notebook with a penny which is similar to KAI, which started by selling a razor for a penny. It was a happy, hopeful event for Mr. and Mrs. Endo that his eldest son became a member of KAI.


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