Work calls for a range of skills, such as planning, decision-making, negotiation, conceptualization, communication, problem-solving, consideration, the ability to learn from your mistakes, the ability to ask questions, imagination, creativity, judgement, logical thinking… the list goes on. Today I will be discussing concentration.

When you have worked with bespoke orders and modifications for as long as I have, you are bound to have encountered a few unusual requests that leave you scratching your head. At Kikusui, we accept any special order that is technically feasible, provided we can agree on budget, although we sometimes find ourselves building devices based on technical specifications alone without knowing what they will actually be used for. In this series I will discuss some unusual bespoke projects I have encountered at Kikusui, while maintaining our clients’ confidentiality, of course. Today’s instalment concerns a silicone-free power supply I worked on 20 years ago.

For professional people, having confidence in ones work is very important. However, confidence may also be described as a type of presumption. When you are overly confident, you tend to assume that your work (or your part of a project) contains no problems, and therefore that any issues must have been caused by others. It is all too common to well-meaningly involve all related parties when a problem arises, only to realize that you were in fact at fault and be forced to apologize. Therefore, while confidence is a necessary quality for professional people, this is a double-edged sword, as confidence can also be the cause of problems too.

I’ll be discussing the art of building wire harnesses.

Today’s article concerns rotary switches, also known as rotary selector switches─those old-fashioned dials that you turn with your fingers. While increasingly uncommon in today’s digital age, rotary switches one featured in a wide range of electrical appliances.

In this article, I will discuss how my perspective has changed as a result of my working environment.

These days, we hear a lot about revival of retro technologies like the cassette and the film camera. Personally, as someone who is obsessed with analog power supplies, I am hoping that the retro trend will see the return of the “dropper-type” power supply.

During my several decades at Kikusui working with custom products, I have gained experience with a range of different products, but I have also had my fair share of setbacks. My tendency to lecture the younger members of my team is the result of lessons I learned the hard way when I was younger. In fact, my experience with overcoming obstacles is an important part of who I am today.

In this column, I discuss my experiences with devices I have worked with.

I am a bespoke engineer with Kikusui’s System Technology Group. While earlier in my career I was involved with our standard (off-the-shelf) range, I have now actually spent longer working with bespoke devices. In this series, I discuss various aspects of bespoke engineering.

Circuit diagrams are important because the quality of the diagram not only has a significant bearing not only on the manufacturing process but also on the efficiency with which modifications can be designed and implemented. In this article, I will talk about two experiences that prompted me to rethink my attitude to schematics.

An installer is a tool used to install software on a computer. While some simpler software applications can be installed simply by copying the relevant .exe (executable) file into the Program Files folder, in cases where there is a need to write to the computer’s registry or libraries, an installer is required. Today’s story involves an experience I had with an installer I wrote for a piece of software.