Engendering strong values of monozukuri and sustainability

Japanese SMEs are facing stiff price competition with regional competitors, such as China, Taiwan, and South Korea. What do you think Japanese SMEs need to do to face up this competition?

With respect to prices, China, Taiwan and South Korea are increasing their competitiveness with mass production.  Nevertheless, the strength of small and medium-sized Japanese enterprises in the manufacturing industry is their ability to pay keen attention to customer needs.  We differentiate ourselves in quality by fully understanding our customers’ purpose of use and developing a suitable product therefrom.  In addition, our strength lies also in the fact that our office is in close proximity to many of our partner companies, facilitating communication and teamwork.

As the Japanese corporate culture dictates, we strive to fully understand our customers’ demands at all times both domestically and overseas, to maintain good communication and to  advance business while mutually aligning our future goals.

Is Monozukuri the crucial aspect of your business? What are the essences of it to you?

Our passion for monozukuri (manufacturing) is based on the deep-rooted feelings of our employees. Each employee desires to create superior products and the company desires to integrate what each employee created to make superior products to offer to customers.  That is the starting point of monozukuri. 

Tsukiboshi employs a unique manufacturing method.  In the forging process, the design of the dies which provides additional value to the products is made 100% in-house.  Equipment pertaining to product quality as well as supply and output are all carried out in-house.   By providing our customers with products made by machinery built in-house, we are not only differentiating ourselves from other companies, but are also engendering strong attachment toward monozukuri in our employees. 

By 2025, the high-precision industry expects to reach a worth of $300 billion, with the automotive sectors contributing $65 billion. Under this switch of trends to electric vehicles (EVs), what do you think Japan should do to maintain a good reputation at an international level?

Roughly 70% of Tsukiboshi’s automotive-related products are related to the internal combustion engine.  With the trend toward EVs, there are concerns that such parts will decrease gradually.  On the other hand, we are focusing our energy on the development of new EV-related products, with an emphasis on safety parts. 

Regarding the environment, we are contemplating a layout for our new factory presently undergoing construction that is scheduled to be completed next year.  According to that layout, in-plant physical distribution will be reduced by approximately 40%.  We are endeavoring to be environmentally friendly from the aspect of monozukuri as well.   

There is little difference between our products and those of South Korea or China.  Therefore, in order to differentiate ourselves from the foregoing, we focus on the people who are manufacturing the products and their mental brilliance, as well as monozukuri that is environmentally friendly.  We believe that such things are our contribution to the world and indirectly our contribution to our customers.

Could you tell us your current main technical capabilities?

We feel that our technical strength lies in our ability to make proposals to meet customer needs.  In addition to our core technique of precision cold-forming, we provide such secondary processing as cutting, grinding, rolling and surface treatment, enabling us to propose shapes and prices to suit customer needs. 

Moreover, we have the advantage of being able to manufacture products of various sizes ranging from 1mm to 25mm. Our company started from the manufacturing of bicycle spokes and at the time of foundation, our strong point was in the processing of long and thin products.

In the case of your factory in Thailand, how do you ensure the quality of your products produced there?

In order to ensure the quality of products manufactured at our Thai factory, we have stationed Japanese technicians to deal directly with quality control.  In addition, the same facilities as used in Japan have been installed there.  The only difference is the workers who carry out the production process.  Unfortunately, the workers in Thailand do not have the same level of ability to launch new products as Japanese workers.  Thus, new products are launched in Japan first, then transferred to Thailand.  As for products with mass production achievements in Japan, it is possible to attain the same Japanese-quality production by adhering to the standard operation manual. 

Among the cold forming process, the press process, and surface treatment processing, which of these processes is the priority of your business model? What are the advantages of it?

We feel that our core technique of cold-forming is the most important.  One advantage of cold-forming is that in some cases heat treatment is unnecessary due to work hardening and another benefit is that higher-precision products may be achieved in comparison to products using hot forging.

There are four required elements in the high-precision manufacturing process, which are the proper machinery, controlled environment, CAD & CAM software, and skilled engineers. How do you manage to integrate these elements, and what are the roles of engineers in this process?

Concerning machinery, by building our own machinery in-house, we are adding value to our facilities.  We do not place much emphasis on CAD & CAM software.  Since we employ superior engineers who are able to produce new ideas for development and designs, CAD & CAM are not our priority. With regard to the environment, we focus on maintaining a work-friendly environment for our employees.  For example, we provide functional work clothes which allow ease of movement, as well as fully equipping the workplace with air conditioning and heating.  In addition, the office space has been configured so that our engineers can come up with new ideas in a relaxed environment.  Our office is equipped with a comfortable environment, playing background music as in IT companies, providing tatami space and enabling employees to freely change their work desk (known in Japan as the free address system).

Could you tell us about your research and development (R&D) department, and what are the priorities of the department?

We put great value on our core technique of cold forging.  We also put forth great effort in the processing technique of processing-resistant materials such as stainless steel and aluminum.  To that end, we have embarked on research and development of processing-resistant materials in collaboration with universities.  Furthermore, we encourage young managers to pursue new R&D initiatives by providing a maximum budget of JPY 50 million.

A durable and lighter material, such as magnesium and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), is rising in the trend of EVs. Are these materials also included in your R&D engagement?

Unlike press-forming, cold-forming is not a suitable processing method for magnesium-based materials.  Similarly, CFRPs are not suitable for our key facilities and thus are not the subject of our research.  We feel that achieving weight reduction is a vital element of the EV trend and from that aspect, we are putting forth effort in the processing technique of aluminum as lightweight materials.  In addition to cold-forming, we are also focusing on the research and development of areas we were not previously engaged in, such as cutting, grinding, rolling and surface treatment.  Such initiatives include new collaborations with partner companies as well as research and development with universities. We are also deepening cooperative relationships and becoming partners with companies with processing techniques other than those of the automotive industry such as those of electrical parts and eyeglass industries.  By collaborating with manufacturers of other sectors who will not be our potential competitors, we can disclose Tsukiboshi’s know-how and in return, we expect to acquire many and varied ideas. 

What benefits does the partnership bring to your business model?

Through the trading company Advent Tech, we can deliver products to Harley Davidson, etc.  At the same time, we have become familiar with the business culture of foreign companies and are strengthening our sales activities overseas.  In addition to our partnership with Advent Tech, we deliver our products to customers overseas, such as to German companies. 

How important is the US and European market for your growth strategy?

Presently, we have several important projects for Europe involving automotive and motorcycle products, and our customers have high expectations for us. 

In order to expand sales to the United States, it is necessary to have a base within the country in order to enhance our sense of presence in the market.  We feel that the Americans are better at sales than the Japanese and that role is borne by Advent Tech. 

What is the role of Asian markets in your growth strategy?

Presently, we are focusing on the Chinese market.  As mentioned earlier, we have established a sales base in Shanghai.  Although we do not have a factory in China, by supplying the products manufactured at our Thai factory to China, there are also tariff-related benefits.  Moreover, due to political issues between Japan and China, we intend to utilize our Thai factory to the fullest in order to secure a stable supply to the Chinese market.  With regard to the Thai factory, we have built a new factory and are scheduled to introduce new large-scale forging facilities, enabling the production of small to large-size products as in Japan. 

What specific new products and sectors are you targeting in the European, US, and Chinese market?

We will continue to target the automotive sector and will put forth efforts to diversify our sales channels to other sectors within the automotive industry such as electric equipment and machinery. 

On a personal level, where do you want to take your companies in 10 years?

We continue to contemplate: “what is a superior company?” Our goal is to become the No. 1 local company, a company which inspires people in the community to want to work for Tsukiboshi by providing a comfortable environment for the employees, fostering the workers’ development, and providing a good salary. Based on Tsukiboshi’s management principle, we would like to create our unique philosophy with employees who will be the next-generation executive candidates within the next 2 years. Within 10 years, we hope to acquire the reputation of Tsukiboshi being an exemplary corporate model. 

My grandfather who was the founder of the company once said, “Good products bring honor and glory to the heart.” We would like to expand this company with such pride in mind. Our sincere hope is for people to identify Tsukiboshi not only with high-quality products but also as a company having solid principles.