To be victorious in fierce competition, I want to continue being an “alien” in a positive sense who is not colored by others.

Applying my past work experience to procure parts for RRP* devices.
Supporting fast-paced product development has its own struggles as well as excitement.

I attended a university in South Korea, where I studied Japanese as my major and management as my minor. In 2013, I found employment at a Japanese-affiliated communications infrastructure company. Three years later, I changed jobs to a Korean-affiliated general consumer electronics manufacturer, where I was involved with purchasing and procuring electronic parts for smartphones over a period of five years. In April 2021, I entered the JT Group as an employee with prior experience.

Since then, I have been and am currently responsible for procuring electronic parts, in a team working on RRP* part procurement. The time I entered was before the start of mass production for Ploom X, so at first I focused on procuring parts related to it, but now my operations on new projects have increased and I enjoy my work even more every day since I can commit myself to projects starting from the initial stages of product development. I am very satisfied with my work environment, where I can attempt new challenges while utilizing the experience and networks gained from my previous job.

Procurement work is divided into two areas: electronic components and mechanical components. I am responsible for electronic components such as semiconductor chips incorporated within RRP* devices. Since the JT Group was not originally an electronics manufacturer, I was initially confused by the gap in thinking toward procurement between it and general consumer electronics manufacturers like the one I had previously worked at. However, one part of my work is also to strengthen the JT R&D Group from a procurement-related viewpoint, by looking at the differences in business practices for each industry, and creating the best methods for carrying out business transactions.

In addition to procuring parts for products whose regulations and standards have been determined and which have been designated for mass production, I am also required to carry out procurement partway through product development in the R&D Group, or in other words at stages where various elements including product design and specifications have not yet been finalized. The Research and Development Group has its own unique difficulties, but during the process of looking over their provisional specifications many times while proceeding with my operations, I can gain a deeper attachment to the work the more I put my feelings into those products. My work at my previous job mainly consisted of procurement at the mass production stage, where final product specifications had been determined. Even in the same field of part procurement, it primarily involved just executing tasks that were assigned to me, so the interest as well as difficulty of my current work are very different.

*Reduced-Risk Products: Products with the potential to reduce health-related risks associated with smoking

Joining forces with people both inside and outside of the company can make it possible to overcome problems that could not be handled alone.

Due to the impacts of an explosive increase in demand for electronic equipment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its effects on supply chains, there is now a severe shortage in the supply of electronic components, primarily semiconductors. Since the JT Group is a new participant in the electronic equipment field and also has a smaller production scale than other companies such as smartphone manufacturers, it does not have strong negotiating power in the market by any means. Therefore, even with sufficient financial resources it is difficult to purchase the required quantities of necessary parts. Even if 100 units of a certain part are ordered, at times it may only be possible to purchase 50, or sometimes only 30, of them. I am continually doing my best to ensure that we can secure parts in even slightly larger quantities.

For RRP* devices, if their design is finalized with product specifications that assume the use of a certain semiconductor component A, it is not possible to easily replace it with even a similar component B. To use parts with specifications that are even just a bit different, it will be necessary to investigate the assurance of their functions, safety, and quality. Since this requires both labor and time, it is difficult to have such situations be accepted by related departments, including product design, under normal circumstances. However, in our current emergency circumstances, considerations and special steps are being actively taken toward the intentions of the purchasing and procurement side. Quality assurance representatives have responded quickly, and external suppliers are being flexible and giving their cooperation.

The reason we are able to continue production even under these severe conditions is that related internal as well as external parties are cooperating with each other as “One Team.” If any of them happen to face any troubling situations of their own in the future, I want to be even more active than before in supporting and helping them.

*Reduced-Risk Products: Products with the potential to reduce health-related risks associated with smoking

It is precisely because I want to contribute to the growth of the company that I will continue being an “alien.”

I want to continue doing my work while not forgetting that I myself am an “alien” (outsider) in the JT Group. Since humans are creatures that adapt quickly to their environment, at some time I may adopt work methods and ways of thinking that take on the characteristics of the JT Group. But, I actually want to remain an “alien” as long as possible. I believe that doing so will lead to more diversity in the organization, and ultimately will become a benefit to our company.

The RRP* business is still a very new field. No matter how outstanding our tobacco sticks , which are similar to the cigarettes that were the major products of our past business, may be, they will not work without devices. It is likely that evolution, growth, and stabilization on the electronic equipment side will become more and more important for the growth of our company. Therefore, I believe that people like myself, who entered the tobacco business from the outside, will be able to contribute precisely by cooperating with each other to pass on the well-established knowledge and practices we each have cultivated in the electronic equipment business.

There is actually a painful personal experience of failure behind that belief. Since my past company had a stance where it took the success of its existing businesses for granted, it was not quick enough to enter new areas. This caused it to lose to its competitors, ultimately leaving it with no choice but to withdraw even from its existing businesses. I believe that the conditions of the current RRP* business environment are very similar to that time. If we continue to have a conventionally-focused way of thinking and business style, we will repeat the same mistakes as my previous company. Especially now, I want us to devote ourselves to cooperating with internal and external parties to establish a stable base for highly-competitive device development and commercialization, so that we can surpass our competitors who have taken the lead ahead of us in the RRP* businesses.

*Reduced-Risk Products: Products with the potential to reduce health-related risks associated with smoking