Management Newsline

(Summary Article)

By Nozomu Kawamoto

Photo credit: Nobusato Matsuzaki

Over a span of nearly two decades, Epson has gone a long way toward fulfilling the dreams of photo enthusiasts with groundbreaking inkjet printers, inks, and media that have revolutionized the world of digital photography. The unique Micro Piezo technology behind Epson’s celebrated Stylus printer lineup was developed in the late 1980s by a team of engineers headed by Minoru Usui, now a board director. Having been named general administrative manager of the Production Engineering and Development Division last year, Usui is currently also directing his foresight and enthusiasm to the question of not just what to make, but how exactly to make it.

Exceed Your Vision

"To be successful, manufacturing requires the development of two sets of technologies," Usui points out. "The first set includes the technologies that go into the products themselves and help distinguish them from other similar products on the market; the second comprises those that enable the building of such products. Our biggest joy is when the vision we had for a dream product is embraced by customers as well. To achieve this, it’s vital that both sets of technologies be of outstanding quality."

R&D generally focuses on the product itself. "There’s no point in discussing how to make something, after all, without an overall idea of what it is that you’re making," he says. But in Epson’s case, production engineering has long been a core strength that has driven growth. "We were the first to commercialize the quartz watch," sold under the Seiko brand name. "This was the culmination of a dream to offer customers wristwatches with unmatched precision. We believed that quartz was the answer, but it was impossible to build quartz devices small enough to fit into a watch with technologies that were available at our suppliers. So we decided to develop our own quartz oscillators to turn our dream into reality." The impetus for the Stylus printers also came from a vision to offer customers worldwide the possibility of easily producing photographic-quality color printouts. "Epson engineers have been and continue to be committed to overcoming difficult manufacturing challenges, as expressed in our tagline, Exceed Your Vision."

Broader Applications

Another major task of production engineering is to raise the profitability of existing businesses. "We’re now a very large company that builds not only printers but also projectors, quartz devices, and LCDs, so innovations in one area can have large repercussions in others. Markets naturally become saturated after a while, so to enhance profitability, we need to expand the target clientele in addition to developing innovative products."

Epson recently developed a new print head with thin-film piezo elements and high-density ink reservoirs featuring significant enhancements in energy efficiency, which is expected to support the company’s expansion into fields beyond consumer printers, dovetailing as it does with the growing global concern about the environment.

On-demand Production

One issue that is central to the production process is labor. "Workers in Japan began to avoid difficult, dirty jobs a few decades ago, and many of these jobs went to countries where wages are cheaper. But once living standards in those countries rise, workers there won’t want such jobs either. Moving factories again won’t really solve the problem."
A more fundamental solution, Usui believes, is the achievement of fully automated, workerless factories. "They’re not likely to become commonplace in five years, but given the rapid pace of technological development, in about twenty years it may become cheaper to employ robots than human workers to perform routine tasks."

"Fully automated factories operating twenty-four hours a day, with robots that can be easily adjusted to accommodate minor model changes, can make that a reality," Usui envisions. "That will be the day when we achieve our dream of ‘on-demand production.’"