Doing my best to achieve my dream of creating best-selling, even standard-setting, innovative products

N.H.
She joined the company in 2008. Her hobby is travelling. Travelling makes for a nice contrast to her quiet days off. She sometimes makes an over-night trip to Nagoya, meeting friends there, and sometimes she spends her time off quietly on her own, trying to reach a spiritual state of nothingness. By doing so, she restores her energy.

Current Job

Designing connectors for automotive camera modules.

I wanted to be a technician involved in manufacturing in my hometown, Toyama. I looked for a job at a material or electronic component manufacturer with a good work environment. I found SMK. After joining the company, I initially designed power supply connectors. Now I am in charge of designing connectors for automotive camera modules. Since vehicle on-board cameras became mandatory in North America, the market has rapidly expanded. Around View Monitor Cameras are now required on new vehicles. Once autonomous cars become practical, the need for on-board cameras will dramatically increase, so the potential for the market to expand is nearly infinite. My tasks include reviewing rough sketches based on specifications, design using 3DCAD, trial production, repeated testing and evaluation, creation of metal molds for mass production and planning construction of the production line.

Job Satisfaction

I feel particularly happy when products I designed are released.

The quality requirements for the safety and reliability of connectors for automotive cameras are strict. We conduct trial production time and again by meeting with customers. Because we make such efforts, I feel particularly excited when one of our connectors is mounted on a vehicle and released. These days I am sometimes asked to design using new approaches in order to create a completely new connector, not to simply improve an existing connector. More and more, projects require us to gather all of SMK's abilities and work as one. In such cases everyone including the quality and production teams as well as our design team works together. The creative discussions required for such projects is an exciting part of my job.

Challenges and Dreams

To someday make an SMK original product that becomes a global standard.

Connectors for automotive cameras are mainly delivered to the manufacturers of assembled products affiliated with global automakers. Our parts and material suppliers are also from all over the world, so our e-mail communications require English, Chinese and Japanese. As I am involved in such global interactions, my ambition has been aroused. I want to develop SMK original products that are recognized globally. SMK's program, called "Development Project," encourages engineers to develop products and elemental technologies by looking to the future and to report on their achievements. I also challenge myself to deliver such results. My dream is to create an innovative product utilizing elemental technologies I have developed through the "Development Project" that becomes a best-seller or even a global standard. I believe I can definitely realize this dream at SMK. I am looking forward to the day my dream comes true.