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The Totsuko tape recorders further penetrated the school market with the introduction of the 75,000 yen P-type tape recorder that followed the H-type tape recorder.
The Totsuko tape recorders sold well for very definite reasons. One reason was good after-sales service. Unfortunately, the recorders would occasionally break down. This was because customers were unfamiliar with the new product. At that time, Totsuko was struggling to meet customer demand with a limited work force of fewer than 300 people. Yet, realizing the importance of after-sales service, factory manager Akira Higuchi arranged for a dozen capable full-time service engineers to be stationed in Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. Higuchi stressed that servicemen should not wait until the product broke down and was brought in for repairs. Thus, Totsuko servicemen started making regular rounds of their respective areas, carrying repair parts with them. Despite the sacrifice entailed by Totsuko during a time of serious manpower shortage, this regular service operation enhanced the company's superb reputation among schools and elsewhere, and helped promote the use of tape recorders. But the price paid by those service engineers was considerable as they coped with one problem after another, caused by frequent design changes.
Another reason for successful sales was careful packaging in wooden boxes. The box would be nailed shut with shock-absorbing shavings inside. The exterior would be reinforced with wood slats and then roped for easy handling. This elaborate packaging was time-consuming and a burden when orders flooded in. Although corrugated cardboard were available, Totsuko stuck with the wooden box to avoid damaging the product during delivery. For example, products delivered to dealers in Osaka would be loaded Shiodome in Tokyo, transferred in Nagoya, and carried to Namba on the Kansai Line. If the freight laborers handled the packages carelessly, who knows what damage could have been done. Totsuko actually conducted a physical shock test by repeatedly dropping a loaded package on the factory concrete floor and photographing the insides to check how well the product had withstood the shock each time it was dropped. Thus extra attention was paid to the quality of packaging, and Totsuko products steadily gained their reputation for excellence.
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 | | A production line of the P-type tape recorder. |
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When products started selling well, Totsuko realized that the biggest problem was to keep its production rate even with demand. Since the company had no experience in mass production, they saw the necessity of studying assembly line production. Totsuko could not afford to remain a cottage industry forever.
Taketoshi Kodama served as an intermediary and arranged a factory tour of Hayakawa Electric Co. Ltd. President Tokuji Hayakawa was an ingenious person known for his invention of the Sharp Pencil, a mechanical pencil. In fact, Hayakawa Electric later changed its name and is now known as Sharp Corp. As fate had it, when Hayakawa had been forced out of business in Tokyo due to war damage, he had worked temporarily at an Osaka company called Club Cosmetics, run by Kodama's father. As a favor, he asked Hayakawa, "One of my employees wants to see your factory. Could you please arrange it." It was Morita who went to see Hayakawa's production line in the guise of a Club Cosmetics employee.
Upon hearing Morita's report, Totsuko decided, "We must adopt an assembly line system immediately." So they asked Kodama's father for help again. "It was a friend of my son who went to see your factory the other day...," confessed Kodama's father when he arranged an official tour of Hayakawa's production line. On this occasion, Totsuko officially sent Higuchi, production manager Kazuo Iwama and sales manager Koichi Kasahara, who all carefully studied the conveyor system from their respective standpoints. They gained vital information on how to prevent wiring mistakes and how to determine the number of parts to be assembled at each step for the most efficient production flow.
In the meantime, the factory manager of Hayakawa Electric was kind enough to come and see Totsuko. He advised that protrusions in the factory should be rounded so as not to hinder push carts from moving around the assembly line and that special precautions should be taken against fire in the tape production area where many chemicals were kept and used. Totsuko learned a great deal from Hayakawa Electric.
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