2022 New Year, New Initiatives: Message from Shibaura Machine

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL, January 4, 2022 

Upon reflection, as the COVID pandemic has continued throughout 2021, I am very proud to report our company’s management and employees have transitioned from successfully reacting to the resulting challenges, to proactively anticipating new demands on our business and quickly adapting to the changing landscape.  Our accomplishments include;

• Our business throughout 2021 has seen renewed growth in sales and profitability; along with a strong new hire rate of approximately 11% as we have actively combed the volatile job market in search of talented new employees.
• We have refined our already successful “work-from-home” program and implemented hybrid features to maximize flexibility, productivity, and responsiveness.
• We have safely and effectively continued all company functions, maintaining the health and welfare of our employees, with very few COVID exposure incidents and no significant disruptions to company operations or facilities.
• Shibaura Machine continued its successful refocus in support of critical infrastructure industries which have remained relatively strong, such as medical, household products, and many others.
• In response to carbon neutral demand including the EV shift, our Injection Molding division continued expansion of the all-electric product line, now offering up to 2,750 tons of clamping force, with further increases expected in 2022. Further, Shibaura Machine has developed our latest all-electric toggle clamping die casting machines, DC-E-Series, featuring the DC1100R-E and DC1300R-E; machines which provide optimal solutions to help industries ensure uncompromised quality in the production of castings with maximum return on investment.
• Our Machine Tool Division continues to offer our customers choices of CNC Controls by the recent offering of the latest FANUC and TOSNUC CNC controllers on select models of horizontal boring mills.  With this change, we now offer the FANUC CNC control on all machine tool platforms including vertical turning machines and bridge style machines.  Shibaura Machine will also be announcing a new product model of the bridge style machine as we enter 2022.
• 2021 has seen strong commitment within our corporation to developing our Industry 4.0 service offering to ignite productivity in manufacturing via connected machines, people, data, and value chains. We continue to transform our machinery and technologies to allow our customers to realize their Return of Investment (ROI) at a substantially faster pace.
• Our digital transformation initiative, marking a radical rethinking of how we use technology, people, and processes to fundamentally change business performance, has generated much excitement within Shibaura Machine in 2021. We expect to begin seeing the fruit of our hard labor beginning in 2022.
• We continued to honor our spare parts commitments to customers by; 1) maintaining our essential parts inventory in excess of $15M and, 2) successfully implementing warehouse safeguards and procedures to ensure no interruptions to “next day” parts delivery commitments.
• We have continued our nationwide service support commitments, navigating the shifting state and local compliance requirements, while keeping our service teams safe and healthy.

Finally, as we look back on 2021, once again I cannot say enough about our field service and technical support personnel who have continued to travel and maintain a high level of essential customer service during these very trying circumstances.  Also, through constant and careful monitoring of our facilities, both our warehouse and assembly operations have continued uninterrupted.

Looking forward, I am proud to observe our productivity and business opportunities continue to expand.  I can clearly see how our flexible work-from-home policies, combined with the exciting new possibilities stemming from our digital transformation mindset, all driven by our tireless commitment to customer satisfaction, is creating new enthusiasm and motivation among our employees.

• In 2022 we will be creating a new Digital Services Division whose mission will be to promote, support, and continue to drive development of our new Industry 4.0 digital products.  These exciting new IIoT products and services will be game-changers in manufacturing, connecting machines, people, data, and value chains, and generating the vital data needed to help our customers realize their Return of Investment (ROI) at a substantially faster pace.
• 2022 will also see company restructuring, designed to mirror that which is occurring within our corporate parent, to ensure maximum efficiency in utilizing our resources.  In addition to the aforementioned Digital Services Division, we will combine all molding machine operations into a single Molding Machine company which will merge similar functions and capabilities, thereby expanding internal synergy and enhancing communication and cooperation.
• Shibaura Machine remains committed to sustainability; supporting the development and commercialization of environmentally friendly plastics, biodegradable materials, and stronger, light-weight materials.

As a corporation we continue to implement other organization reforms and enhanced investment to ensure added value and greater productivity in our manufacturing plants resulting in higher quality and reduced lead times.

Finally, we are positioned to support our customers, and North American manufacturing in general, to meet their manufacturing goals in 2022.  This will include the continued hiring of additional service and technical staff in 2022 to further strengthen our customer support resources.       

I am proud to be president of this company and to lead such a fine group of talented and dedicated employees.  And at this time I wish all of you a healthy and prosperous new year.

Sincerely,

Hiroshi Azuma
President & Corporate Managing Executive Officer
Shibaura Machine Company, America