Protect the Safety of Customers and Provide Them with Comfort
One of the characteristics of Harada Corporation is the relentless challenges of new business. The rain poncho for leisure facilities is one such business. 
The Safety Protection Team (referred to below as the SF Team) develops products with the concept of “Be safe, be comfortable.” Its mission is to provide other companies with products that protect workers from head and toe, such as protective clothing and rubber gloves, which are comfortable to use and have a reliable effect in settings where safety is required. Settings where safety is required indicate hazardous environments that include heavy industry steelworks, automobile plants, and petrochemical plants. The mission imposed on the SF Team is to first think of the safety of those who work amid dangerous environments and protect them. However, the SF Team does not focus on only such special equipment but also provides ponchos to protect customers from a large amount of water splashing over them on water rides, such as water slides and rapids rides at amusement parks.



3,000 Pairs of Boot Covers Within Three Days!?
The SF Team handled polyethylene shoe covers in the past, but these were not such a hot-selling product, unlike the mainstay gloves and protective clothing sold in the thousands in a short period of time. In 2016, the SF Team received a phone call. It was from a company we had never dealt with. The person at the other end of the line was in a rush and said, “We would like to order 30,000 pairs of boot covers per year if they are available. First, we would like to have 3,000 pairs delivered within the next three days.” The members of the SF Team were surprised by this short lead time and wondered what kind of place needed as many as 30,000 pairs per year. 

Getting more details, we learned that the boot covers would be used for attractions at leisure facilities. They had ponchos but nothing to protect the visitors’ shoes from getting wet. Therefore, they needed long-type shoe covers. Their request for 3,000 pairs within three days would usually be impossible, but Harada Corporation could accommodate their request by managing the inventory. We thought that we could secure an additional 20,000 pairs in two months through negotiations with our suppliers. In addition to securing the product, we advanced the internal and external processes necessary to make a new transaction at extraordinary speed and delivered their order within three days as requested. In response, we received their appreciation with comments of “You prepared all the goods we ordered in spite of the huge quantities. We have never dealth with a company like yours that could respond to our request this quickly.”

Almost Completely Waterproof Ponchos Were Well Received
Taking the delivery of shoe covers as an opportunity, we began interviewing leisure facilities through which we could collect on-site opinions that said, “Some visitors who enjoy water attractions are happy to get wet, but others do not like getting wet. Visitors from overseas, in particular, want to enjoy water attractions but, at the same time, want to enjoy sightseeing at places other than the amusement park. So, there are many people who do not want to get wet.” This got us into the rain poncho business for leisure facilities. We could expand our business to other amusement parks, partly because the ones we had provided with ponchos referred us to others in the same trade. However, in the middle of the promotion to aquariums, we found a new issue. At an aquarium, the person taking our interview said with a gloomy face, “The current issue is single use. Recently, the ocean has been polluted by plastics and garbage. As an institution that runs shows with animals living in the sea, we are in a situation where we cannot ignore the issue of the marine environment.” We, in return, made a proposal to change to high-quality ponchos so that they could be taken home with the visitors instead of being disposable. In other words, we suggested a contribution to the environment by reusing the products, and his  face lit up. We immediately contacted a Vietnamese supplier and decided to develop a poncho with environmentally friendly material, which would fit loose so that users could put it on while carrying a backpack on their back. Thus, the rain poncho for leisure was completed. One of its unique features was a tote bag in which the poncho was stored. We made the size of the bag large enough for users, when seated in spectators’ seats, to put their feet in it to prevent them from getting wet. This tote bag became a popular topic as an exceptional item because it could store large things and protect users’ feet from getting wet. 



Poncho Produced in Partnership With Our Customer
We cannot say that our rain poncho business was successful from the very start. 
Because Harada Corporation had never produced that product before, and it was the first time for our supplier to be engaged in a product for the highly demanding Japanese market, we came across problems one after another, such as partial color loss, contamination by foreign matter, and delivery delay. Just when we thought we had solved all the problems, another came up. Every time we had a problem, members of the SF Team visited our supplier in Vietnam as frequently as every week for a while. They stayed at the site from morning to evening every time to determine the cause of the failures. We noticed that the staff of the local supplier did not do a sloppy job at all but were working to their limit. Therefore, our members from the SF Team, staying at the site, worked together to find out how to improve the product from the details. There were many cases where we realized how difficult it was to accommodate our requests only after we tried to do so by ourselves. After working at the site, we repeatedly discussed with the local staff how to reduce color loss and how to fold the products to increase the production efficiency. Of course, we visited the leisure facilities, our customer, many times to apologize and propose solutions. We were always bogged down in repeated failures, but we did not run away from such difficulties. We continued to face them head on, determining “Let’s just do as much as we can.” 

Repeated failures and delays in delivery would normally have resulted in the suspension of business. However, the person in charge at the leisure facilities said with a smile, “Let’s try one more time.” He thought of specific solutions together with us, and even carried out product inspections with us until late at night when we found out foreign matters in them. Our customer did their best, too. 

Then, though the quality of the product improved, we could not produce enough to meet the demand with only one supplier. Therefore, we decided to look for another new partner factory. This time, however, we did not start from scratch. For we had the experience of thoroughly observing sites that had challenges, working together with them, and making improvements. We organized a production system at a new partner factory in a short period of time and established a system to steadily produce products which would satisfy even the person in charge at leisure facilities. 

The rain poncho for leisure facilities has been well received by leisure facilities and their visitors, and its operation is run securely. In the future, we will consider the possibility of developing this product as an official rain poncho for sports, such as baseball and football, games which are held even in the rain, when spectators would think a poncho would be convenient to wear. Furthermore, collaboration with renown designers and apparel manufacturers would be exciting. We are also considering exploring various possibilities. Ponchos for leisure facilities completed in partnership with our customer. It may not be long before these ponchos become an indispensable item even when watching sports.