Orbray Offers Summertime Internship Program for Kids in Aomori – Invitation to Craftmanship

Last month, Orbray offered a summertime internship program for elementary school children in the Kuroishi area of Aomori Prefecture, where the company has a factory, to help them experience the fun of craftmanship. The program on Aug. 1-2, which was supported by the prefecture, not only provided the students an introduction to Orbray, but inspired the company’s employees to learn more about products and processes from different perspectives.
This year, we asked students of Kuroishi High School’s design department to create a brochure for the event and sold tickets online. All tickets were sold out on the same day they were released. Orbray staff members in charge of the internship had expected a good result even before the program started.

The event comprised four sections: touring the factory; racing a Mario-like cart by rotating a metal shaft to generate the power; assembling the parts of a compact grinder that uses industrial diamond; and playing with communication robots integrating Orbray’s motors in their joints.

The children looked like they were having a lot of fun. They intently listened to briefings about our products and asked many questions, some of which surprised our employees and were difficult to answer.
During the robot session, we gave the children quizzes and asked them what kinds of motors were used in these robots. The children had a great time with the robots, one of which resembled a dog, and two of which were human-like. The Mario-cart race also gathered a lot of attention because the children generated the electricity to power the cars by manually rotating a metal shaft.

The Orbray employees in charge of these sessions looked very impressed with the children’s smiles, which they had never before experienced during the regular working hours of manufacturing. Some employees said they enjoyed watching a compact motor rotating and coils being wound around a shaft, together with the participants. I am convinced that these experiences were very valuable not only for the children but also for Orbray workers.
Some of the children said they wanted to get a job at Orbray in the future, which delighted all of us.

　

　　

One employee who had taken care of the session of assembling a grinder said it was a very educational experience because their job is to inspect finished products and they had no idea how a grinder is set up.
Some workers regretted that they couldn’t sufficiently answer some of the children’s questions about Orbray products. They said they will seek support from the departments that manufacture the products so that they can get better prepared for the question-and-answer session at next year’s event.

　

　

Some staff members proposed a hands-on program for children to manufacture parts at next year’s event.

I can hardly wait until next year!