Canon aims to secure top rank in the inkjet printer market
Canon aims to secure top rank in the inkjet printer market
By Zatni Arbi
BANGKOK (JP): "What do people think of your previous
government?," I casually asked the guide that was taking a group
of IT journalists from Indonesia -- including myself -- from the
airport to our hotel in Bangkok.
We were there on the invitation of Canon, one of three top
inkjet printer makers in the world, for a factory visit and a
press event in Thailand. To my surprise, the guide, Simon,
responded that he himself was unhappy with former prime minister
Chuan Leekpai's administration. He thought the modest PM was OK,
but the biggest problems were caused by the people around him in
the government.
Well, Simon should be given a chance to visit Jakarta, I
thought. He would then be able to see the stark contrast between
his country and mine. During the trips to Ayuthaya and
subsequently to Canon's high-tech factory the following day, not
far from this historical place, I became so deeply envious of the
Thais. Well-built and well-maintained toll roads were everywhere,
and signs of prosperity were clear even hundreds of kilometers
outside Bangkok. Inside the capital city, I did not see people
loitering on the sidewalks and street corners as we see every day
in Jakarta.
And the presence of Canon inkjet factory in Thailand is again
testimony to how well the country is doing. While we do have
Epson's biggest manufacturing facility in Cikarang, we have time
and time again driven other investors away by our failure to
create a really supportive and conducive environment for
investment. Hewlett Packard, for instance, is reportedly planning
to build a manufacturing facility in Malaysia, not in this
country.
Moving away
Canon has been present in Thailand since the beginning of the
1990s. Just within 18 months of its operation here, it began
shipping the first "made in Thailand" copier.
Today, Canon High-Tech (Thailand) Ltd. has a paid-in capital
investment of 1,300 million baht. The manufacturing plant that we
visited produced personal copiers, low-end Bubble Jet printers
and Bubble Jet fax machines. Bubble Jet is the name that Canon
uses for its inkjet technology. High-end printers, such as the
BJC 8200 and 8500, are still made in Japan, though.
Support from the Thai government was evident in the various
awards that the company has received since November 1994, which
included honors for the company's efforts in environmental
conservation, safety, quality management as well as export
performance. While these could certainly be viewed as part of PR
campaign from the company side, it nonetheless shows how much
attention the Thai government has paid to its industrial sector.
During the presentations made by company executives at the
Canon High-Tech manufacturing facility, we also learned that they
were able to increase production more than 100 percent by
abandoning the conveyor belt system and adopting the cell-based
production system. So, today, you will not see people sitting
along tracks of moving trays that carry individual products from
start to finish inside the manufacturing plant. Instead, the
factory floor is divided into cells in which a group of workers
work on the assembly process until the finished products are
sealed in their boxes, ready for shipment.
Increasing productivity by moving from the familiar conveyor
system typical of mass production to a cellular system on the
factory floor sounded counterintuitive, but Canon's executives
convinced us that, indeed, they had been successful in increasing
production from less than 400,000 units per year to over 800,000
units. The current target is to manufacture 1.3 million printers,
copiers and fax machines in a year.
I suspect that the relatively low productivity in the conveyor
system might have been related to worker' discipline. In the belt
model, every worker should work with the same efficiency and
speed as the one next to him, as the belt would likely have very
little tolerance for lags. By dividing the production line into
cells, there would be more flexibility and the faster workers
could compensate for the slower ones. Unfortunately, due to the
language barrier, I was unable to verify this with them.
Yet, it was a plausible answer, because at the factory every
worker had the right and opportunity to voice his or her opinion.
"We listen to them," said the Canon executive that showed us
around the factory. "And frequently they come up with brilliant
ideas such as this one," he added, pointing out a round loading
palette that was designed by the people in the cell using
materials provided by the company. Canon Thailand also touted the
company's "Kyosei" philosophy, which puts emphasis on
"contributing to the world's prosperity through corporate
development". As of March this year, the manufacturer has around
4,600 employees, and approximately 80 percent are female workers.
Market leader
In all ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines,
Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, Canon did very well last year
and occupied the No. 1 position in the inkjet printer market.
In Malaysia, for example, Canon controls 64 percent of the
market, -- its largest market worldwide. Last year in Indonesia,
with a 45 percent market share in 2000, up from 40 percent in
1999, Canon was also No. 1 in terms of unit sales of inkjet
printers. The company was able to achieve this through its low-
end Bubble Jet printers, particularly the BJC 1000SP and BJC
2100SP as well as the very popular Rp 1.3 million BJC 3000. In
this market, where consumers are still very price-sensitive,
these printers, which deliver decent quality print results plus
the capability to print on various print media, meet their needs.
Canon has been aggressively establishing itself as a serious
imaging solution provider. Last year, for example, it launched
seven new models of scanners, most of which had very sleek
designs. In the next few months, new models of printers and
scanners and a new projector will emerge with improved
technologies. Canon aims to secure the top position through these
products. The target is to sell one million Bubble Jet printers
in the region alone.
As I came home with a better impression of this Japanese
company, there was, however, a sad feeling and a stronger wish
that our leaders would seriously start working on rebuilding the
country. They do not have to go far to find a good example of how
economies can come out of the crisis relatively quickly -- with
the help of foreign investment and the right investment policies.
(zatni@cbn.net.id)