iiDZKA: A future growing with intellect and technology

Traditionally Japanese manufacturing involves relentless pursuit for perfection and this was defined as monozukuri, but nowadays the modern version of monozukuri is responding to customers’ requests providing added value to the products. How do you define monozukuri and what is the essence behind it?

I agree with what you said about monozukuri. This company was founded by my father who is an engineer and he was deeply engaged in monozukuri. He kept overcoming the challenges that he encountered in order to pursue perfection in the production and as a child I saw that kind of spirit. I think the strength of Japanese manufacturers lies in the production which is supported by the skills of the engineers. It is embedded in the mindset of Japanese people to pursue perfection. Kaizen is another culture of the Japanese people where they constantly strive to improve. We specialize in cold forging. One thing that is very important in the process of making products with cold forging is dies, and we specialize in die technology as well. The formation of our dies depends on the skills of the engineers and their skills make a difference to the success of the finished products. The skills and experience of the engineers are very crucial. But as we eye the future, I realize that we cannot always rely just on the engineers forever, so we have begun implementing the use of digital data in the process of designing products using a 3D scanner, and we will continue on the path toward more digitization as we go forward.  We will gather these data and pass them on to the successors. So we will rely on digital data in the process, but we will also continue to rely on the skills of our engineers, as they still have a definite role that is vital for achieving the highest level of quality, which has come to be expected from the Iidzka brand.

Japanese SMEs are the flag bearers of the monozukuri and kaizen philosophies and these have become famous worldwide in the development of niche tech that plays a key role in the international supply chain. What do you think is the role of the Japanese SMEs in the international supply chain? What do you think are the key contributions that they bring?

Since our foundation we have been specializing in metal processing and when our company was founded we only had simple technologies for press such as for punching and bending. In 1981 we introduced our forging equipment and since then we have developed more advanced forging technologies, and we are now well known in our industry for our high-level of expertise in cold forging. The decision to specialize in cold forging has given us a strong advantage in the market. 

With the advanced technologies that we have today such as Big Data, IoT, and AI, we have seen that these aforementioned processes are integrated together; thus, the role of the engineer is changing. As companies such as yours are digitizing data and as automation continues, how do you think the role of the engineers and operators evolve in the next 10 to 15 years?

We specialize in cold forging and this requires a lot of effort in the development process. The digitization and automation are mostly connected with the mass production process. Before a company can proceed with mass production it has to undergo very difficult steps, that inevitably do not all go smoothly. The level of difficulty is especially high in our case, because we tend to specialize in difficult projects, due to our unique expertise in cold forging. We will continue to put ample human resources into the process and undergo trial-and-error to establish the production process. We will certainly adapt to these trends in automation but rather than rely blindly on robots alone, we will rely on skilled engineers applying their expertise to use automation to our advantage. We have only started with digitization recently and we are still facing many challenges, but we will continue to push forward and overcome the challenges.

The precision parts industry worldwide is expected to be worth $300 billion by 2025 of which $65 billion would be from the automotive sector. Japanese automotive companies could produce reliable cars and a good combination between quality and price. Moving forward the EVs and CASE Technologies will advance further. The car automotive industry is entering a new phase. How can Japan continue to maintain its reputation worldwide as the world will transition to this new phase?

The cost of Toyota’s hybrid cars is low, they are really stable and have a high quality. Transitioning to EV is not that easy and it was a wise decision of Toyota to produce hybrid cars. One important characteristic of Japanese cars is that they do not break, they are highly reliable and the quality is excellent. This is key to maintaining Japan’s reputation going forward as the industry undergoes changes.

With hybrid cars and EVs being manufactured we are seeing changes in designs as well as the shapes of the parts and bodies of the automobiles. With the government’s mandate to reduce CO2 emissions and the carbon footprint, the auto makers had to produce lighter materials and the demand for aluminium and CFRP is increasing. How is this change affecting your company and how are you adapting to this transformation in the automotive field?

It is true that there have been many requests for lighter parts. The safety parts such as seatbelts that we supply are now required to be smaller, stronger and lighter. We are making efforts to make this happen. In fact our best selling product was originally made by connecting 3 separate parts, but we were able to redesign the product so as to be made from one part, resulting in a product that is lighter, less costly and stronger. Steel has been used in the majority of the products we make, but now there is an increasing demand to replace larger and heavier parts with something that is more compact and light. With this recent trend the automobile parts are now being replaced with lighter materials, we are now engaged in forging of aluminium and we have been putting a higher priority on research and development of forging aluminium parts.

Your company is capable of  precision machining complex parts using a number of complementary processes. You have your pre-treatment, cold forging, cutting/machining and surface processing. Kindly tell us the synergies you have been able to create with these distinct yet complementary processes and how you are able to serve the different needs of your clients.

The forging process begins with the selection of materials in which we consult with our clients to determine the specifications. We design the entire production process and produce the dies and we are able to do this in house; this is one of our strengths and because of this we are able to deliver our products in a minimal lead time. With our kaizen we do trial-and-error repeatedly to improve the entire production process. In terms of heat processing and surface treatment we are working with a business partner and we outsource that part of the process, despite not doing this in house we are still able to deliver the finished products in a short period of time. 

Since Abenomics were introduced in 2012 the Japanese automotive industry has been steadily ramping up its production and now 35% of all Japanese cars are supplied to the American market. Can you tell us how you are perceived by tier one suppliers to the big giants such as GM, Ford, and Chrysler? What role does America play in your international expansion?

The scale of the Japanese market is quite limited while there is a lot of potential in the overseas market. We supply 65-70% of our products to various markets overseas. In some cases we directly interact with overseas companies and sometimes we deliver our products to the Japanese warehouses which are then sent to the market overseas. We are a tier 2/tier 3 company so while we do not directly supply our parts to the car makers, they are used in Ford and GM cars. We will continue serving our clients and expand our overseas market shares.

Since 2012 you have engaged in joint-venture in China to manufacture and sell your products. Why did you start a joint-venture? What are the advantages that this international sales and production capability brings to your business?

At this moment we have already exited from local production in the Chinese market and we are no longer involved in that joint-venture. Previous to the joint-venture we had been producing the parts only in Japan and sending them to China, but we felt the necessity to do it in China and that was how we started a joint-venture. We manufactured the steering joints and intermediary parts for the shops in China. We received a lot of orders from the local market, however, we had to exit from that market due to difficulty securing enough human resources with the necessary level of expertise. We left everything to our local partner and we decided to just focus our production here in Japan.  

Your company makes precision metal parts for seatbelts and airbags which are crucial to the security of the drivers or anyone using the car. Year after year the regulations concerning the safety features of cars are becoming more stringent. How do you think these regulations will evolve in the future? How is your company able to remain on top?

In our business we always do our best to satisfy the needs and requests of our customers. In terms of the safety features, I think that is obvious in the emerging markets. There are still many countries where the airbags specifications are not standardized. Recently we are seeing some new legal framework that has been established, it is now required to install the airbags on both sides of the front seats of the vehicles. The key to get a larger market share is to be involved during the early stage of the development and to work together with our clients in the design and development as well as to obtain the necessary information as soon as possible. It is extremely important to deliver products of high quality to our customers.

Increasingly there are two important Asia markets for the Japanese auto parts makers: India and Indonesia. How are you going to implement your international strategies in these markets? Will you engage in joint-ventures, co-creation, or establish a factory in those locations?

The scale of our business is limited, therefore we do not plan to build another factory in those markets. We will pursue alliances with local companies regarding the use of our technology and we would collect royalty fees in return. Actually we have an alliance with a local manufacturer in Thailand for the cold forging technology which is something that we would be expanding moving forward. 

Imagine we come back to interview you again in five years, what would you like to tell us? What are your dreams for the company and what would you like to have accomplished by then?

In 2016 we made a goal which was what we call Challenge 2021. At that time our sales volume was about ¥ 3 billion to ¥ 3.7 billion and our target was to increase it to ¥ 5 billion in 2021 and we also aimed for 10% profitability. Unfortunately due to the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of the trade friction between China and the US, sales reached only ¥ 2.3 billion. At this moment we will try to achieve that goal first. Another important goal is to make our employees happier and to create a comfortable working environment for our employees. It is important to note that if your employees are happy they will have better performance which will eventually contribute to our clients and the society.