| Posted by Jade Po Kellard on 29 September 2008 at 06:00
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In Tokyo in 1938, exactly 70 years ago, 900 mechanical engineers founded the Tokyo Juki Manufacturer’s association. Seven years later the association started the “sewing machines” business division – unaware that this would grow to become one of its main lines of business. This developed into the industrial sewing machine division, securing JUKI 45% of the world market. Even back then, JUKI had big expansion plans. In order to establish itself on the market, products for other sections of industry were also developed. These were all characterized by the company’s main strengths: high quality, greatest precision and maximum speed.
In the 1980s JUKI went in search of a further rapidly expanding market and found it in the area of SMT placement systems. Finally, in 1987, in cooperation with the then Swiss company Zevatech, the first SMD mounter was launched. Five years later JUKI launched the Flex Line range – a series of modular placement systems. Today, worldwide sales have reached a figure of 20,000 machines.
JUKI was the first company on the market to sell 20,000 automatic mounting machines within such a short space of time. This was a good reason to celebrate. JUKI commemorated this significant milestone on the 12th June 2008 at the “Protec Exhibition” hotel in the center of Tokyo with a lavish and lively party. In addition to members of JUKI, a number of longstanding, global business partners also attended the celebrations.
“In December JUKI will be celebrating its 70th birthday. Therefore, it is all the more pleasing that we have the opportunity to celebrate the much anticipated sale of the 20 thousandth machine in such a significant year”, in the words of Kazuyuki Nakamura, President of JUKI Corp. “However, we wouldn’t have achieved this without the invaluable support and cooperation of all our business partners and customers.“
The Lowest Cost of Ownership Concept is valued by all our customers worldwide. Building on this concept, the company has advanced the product strategy, on the one side, through the development of a brand name with an increasing global profile, and on the other, through the launch of innovative products in all segments of the SMT business sector (KE, FX and SX series).
JUKI’s production strategy consists in the centralization of machine and accessory production in Akita. This facilitates the interaction between the different departments, maintaining quality at a high level. Furthermore, JUKI has set itself the goal of not just meeting customer expectations, but actually exceeding them.
The machine industry is characterized by many changes in the market. JUKI’s mission is to achieve the greatest level of customer satisfaction. This is achieved, amongst other things, through a continual adaptation to the changes in the market. A clear goal is to have customers who express themselves as follows: “We are extremely satisfied with the machines from JUKI.” Over the last years the company has undergone strong growth, as well as supporting the growth of its business partners.
“JUKI has just embarked on a new three year strategy – STEP UP 21. Part of this plan consists in increased investment in design and manufacture as a means to drive along the “SMT” business sector. Furthermore, with the cooperation of the two business sectors SMT and industrial sewing machines, JUKI intends to increase growth,” stated Mr Nakamura. As part of this plan, the company founded a new branch office in Bangkok in March of last year, JUKI SMT Asia Co., Ltd., for the purpose of consolidating customer support in South East Asia, Oceania and South Africa.
Hirokazu Nagashima, Managing Director and Division Manager of JUKI Corp, stated: “In order to operate successfully on the market, all employees in the SMT division must work towards further growth. We will achieve this by continuing to gear our products to customer value and construct machines which are easy to operate. However, we must also maintain our customer services at a high level, reacting quickly where required in order to prevent possible production downtimes.”
Mr. Hirokazu Nagashima, Managing Director and Division Manager of JUKI
“We will continue to supply industry with new products and services and meet the needs of our different customers”, added Mr Nakamura.
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