READ: custom-made solutions for high-precision manufacturing

What do you think Japanese companies should do to respond to the challenges from the increase in competition from other Asian countries?

In terms of mass production, in my opinion, Japan could not manage to compete with the accelerating speed of China’s mass production. However, Japan excels more in precision machinery and that is where the strengths of monozukuri come to life. In that sense, the most important thing for Japanese companies to keep on driving forward is putting the focus towards investing in the labor, enabling the workers to become gifted engineers. Every company in Japan should invest in human resources and that is the key to keep on growing. In addition, mass production is not necessary in the current state. I do believe that the high-quality technologies that Japan provides to the world are increasing the worldwide demand.

Despite having domination through the strengths, Japan does have a weakness in terms of human resources. Fresh graduate engineers in Japan do not have the required knowledge and proactive mindset to keep on learning to be motivated in upgrading their skill sets. This is why Japanese companies need to take the role of investing in human resources by providing their employees the opportunity to keep growing and learning. By that, Japan will be able to compete on the world stage. 

With the changing trends with the IoT system where machines are automatically operating, what are the roles of the engineers as operators?

The sense of monozukuri in Japanese companies will not fade away. I think the spirit of kaizen (improving) is continually improving the ground floor and necessary. With the kaizen alone, it is hard for companies to create products with high added values, and to see to what extent you can design and begin to incorporate multiple amounts of different resources are the elements you need to create these values.

As an example, in the diamond wheels-creating process, there is an important aspect of the importance of having a solid foundation in creating solid results. In the development stage, where the products are designed, to what extent you can refine it will determine the value of finished products as the results.

We are gathering data for the development stages to get all the necessary information through the usage of AIs and technologies to ensure the quality of our product.

Inspection of the materials and the whole assembly line are using AIs and data collection processes, enabling us to produce higher quality products. As for that, we encourage our workers to be highly trained in operating the AIs and manage the navigating process of the large data collection. I believe when all data is comprehended, then you can create better analysis at a precise level to create a better quality of work.

All of these processes and systems are highly related to what Industry 4.0 looks like. In the concept of Industry 4.0, we are focusing on pushing our engineers further in being able to unleash their full potential in operational processes. Those engineers vary based on their ages and to be able to create an atmosphere where all these individuals can access the education we provide and to enable them to develop their high level of imagination and creativity is where we focus on investing our efforts and where other companies should too.

What are your concrete expectations by investing in human resources in your company?

Just putting effort into the research and development sector does not necessarily add any value to products. It is not all about the products, but we have to see all the other elements integrating during the development and design processes where we can incorporate the industry 4.0. In addition, creating the environment in the factory where engineers are enabled to create the advantage of the new technologies.

In our case, we produce original products and technology that only our company is able to manufacture. Our focus rather depends on our ability to continue drawing the strengths of monozukuri and what role can we provide to the world, not necessarily being explosive in terms of revenue in a new market.

As a president, I need to make sure that these employees are working in a suitable environment where they can enjoy their time at work.

Your company deals with material science, how do you think new materials influence your company, and how does your company respond to the new market demands?

In terms of the new market sector of the automotive industry, we provide grinding wheels for cutting magnets. We use a diamond grinding tool to process neodymium, one of the world’s hardest materials to process, which is used in electrical and automotive components. Our grinding tool is capable of reaching a higher level of hardness when compared to the average tools.

Our target market is not silicon-based materials, since silicon materials are easy to cut and process, other companies’ products can be used without our technology.

We focus on utilizing and developing our technology based on the ability of our company to create the hard blades on the grinding tool. Therefore, we focus on materials that are very hard to cut. In that sense, we can diversify the market we cater to. 

If we talk about your strategy for growth, what is your focus in terms of international strategy?

Currently, we do not have any plans to grow explosively. We are looking to respond to our customers with high-quality service. Our focus is not on producing mass production, but rather to focus on producing high-quality productions on a smaller scale.

Several Japanese companies have the technology to compete on the world stage. In this case, we are trying to provide those companies with our technological expertise and explore the technologies even further to continue to grow.

We are seeing that our products have an increase in demand in several new fields of industry, such as the medical industry and solar panels.  We would like to improve ourselves together not only with our conventional partners but also international partners. If there are companies with whom we can collaborate in these aforementioned industries, we will be willing to provide our gained technological expertise to such companies and we’d like to establish a fruitful relationship with them.

We used to supply diamond wires to solar panels manufacturers at a very large scale, however, we decided to stop supplying as there is strong competition with the Chinese companies that slowly dominate the market with the lowest cost. We decided to shift our target for our products into markets that are untouchable by the Chinese companies.

I believe the key is to put more effort into analyzing the data at the development stage, utilizing that data to enhance the services we provide, as well as sales and marketing. Utilizing digitalization is the extent that is important in putting more effort into creating advantages.

It is no longer about producing on a large scale; it is more about being selective in creating high-quality products.

Could you run through the milestones on the history of READ Co., LTD.?

I think the most influential person in the company is the founder. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2012, and I was given the presidency at the young age of 34. The founder established the company during a hard time for Japan due to the 1973 oil crisis.

Amazingly, the founder started everything on his own, it was a hard beginning, however, he kept on pushing forward to increase the sales and deepen the technology relating to the fields.  He created innovation in the multiple blades used in processing the magnetic heads of videotapes (VHS) and that was the big motivation that started further innovative growth of the company.

With the rise of different technologies, we see that magnetic heads’ usage can be utilized further in other devices such as in floppy disks and hard disks.

We are taking advantage of the time to keep growing and expanding the usage of the blade for the magnetic heads cutting process to the level that we are getting the 100% market share or it is only us in the market, in other words.

Through creating the tools for the magnetic heads cutting process, we are able to gain trust from the industry, especially in electronic components.

Furthermore, we can have quite a high percentage of market share  in the processing of MLCCs (multilayer ceramic capacitors).

In the modern semiconductor industry, what are your responses to the importance of technologies to cut substrates?

This industry is a sector we are focusing on the most in the near future. I do believe that it is not necessarily only about creating high-quality grinding tools and blades, but also ensuring the services and development stages are also high-quality. This is where we put in a lot of effort to keep on moving forward. We always look forward to what are the next upcoming trends in the industry and we are never satisfied with what is already there. That is the base of our business model. 

At some point, in the distant future, you will leave the presidency, and when that happens, what legacy do you want to pass down to the next generation?

For me, the most important thing about a company is continuity. The ability to remain consistent and keep on moving forward is the key to this continuity. So, I think putting the effort into creating an environment that supports bringing continuity in the company is important.

It is the role of the founder to start the company, and it is now my job to keep the company running. To that end, I am looking to spend the next 10 years creating and investing in developing and fostering people in the company, so that the people can be dependable.

When it comes to continuity, it does not mean the company will not change. When I was given the presidency in 2012, I needed to restructure the organization of the company. I want to see that the next generation that takes over the presidency has the leadership capability in restructuring the company. It is my role to ensure that there is someone in the company that can take this role.