The Story of New EDFC

Episode 5 【 Easy Compromise 】

"Well, well, what can I do with the controller?"
Sugiyama spoke to himself, sinking into the chair, then remained motionless staring at the ceiling.
What Mihara had said to him, at the beginning of this project, has been on his mind since then.
"Please make something simple yet cool, will you?"
Trying to achieve that, Sugiyama bought up lots of various electronic parts and lined them up on his desk.
His colleagues teased him, saying it looked kind like a corner of mass retailer display.

"Control panel, main unit and G-sensor."
It can't be helped that there would be more controller parts for added features, Sugiyama thought.
He built some models of controller units from cardboard, as he felt it was still a bit early to prepare the mock-up.
Looking at all those models laid out on his desk, he imagined where and how they would fit inside a car.

"Mmm, the control panel goes here like this and the controller is hidden like this."
"And, the G-sensor sits near the controller."
"There! Looks good, doesn't it?"
He laid out his self-admiring pieces of work on his desk and decided to go home early for the first time in months.

The very next morning, he found a memo stuck on his cardboard controller.
It said "You can't be serious! Come on! Tell me you're kidding! Mihara."
Apparently, Mihara came back to the office after Sugiyama had left and found these crafts.
He just had to complain.

Sugiyama called Mihara's mobile phone, as he was already out making the rounds.
"What the heck were you thinking!?," Mihara started to snap at Sugiyama, as soon as he picked up the call.
"We are trying to reduce hassle by eliminating all the cables, right?"
"Why are you trying to add more in-car components? 3 separate units!?"
"That creates a different need for troublesome installation!"

What Mihara was told by the store manager before kept nagging at the back of Mihara's mind.
"You know, EDFC is very convenient once installed, but all the wiring is the pain in the neck."
"We can lower the labor charge if no wiring is required."

As a sales rep, Mihara valued every single staffs at all TEIN dealers.
There was no way he could ignore the voices of such valued customers.
Because of such feelings, Sugiyama's easygoing attitude made Mihara furious.

"Sorry. You are right. I almost forgot."
After being one-sidedly told off by Mihara for about 5 minutes on the phone, Sugiyama did not feel like counter-argue any longer.

As soon as Sugiyama hung up the phone, he asked Nakano for help.
"Please, Nakano. Put control panel, controller and G-sensor into one single unit!"
"And, make it surprisingly compact!"

"What? Are you for real?"
"Surprisingly compact unit you are requesting would still be bigger than the current model!"

"I know I'm probably pushing it bit too far, but I want to make it happen somehow.
"I want to surprise customers and hear them say 'Is this it? Only 1 tiny unit in cockpit?'"
Nakano kept saying "Impossible!" repeatedly but Sugiyama managed to talk him into moving ahead with new design.
Sugiyama, though, ended up treating Nakano to a BBQ dish at a fancy restaurant that is popular among colleagues lately.