Shizuoka fine art workshop pick and place machine surface mounter
Surface mounting equipment (mounters) is a machine that mounts such electronic parts as ICs or chips on a printed circuit board (PCB). i-Pulse has employed the traditional Japanese handcraft skills of a “fine chisel finish” and “precision lapping finish” dating back over 200 years for the finishing process in manufacturing mounters, and achieved the highest degree of plane precision, which is not possible through mechanical processing. Thus, the company developed the kind of mounters that integrate superior craftsman skills for finishing surfaces with infinitesimal irregularities with the latest industrial technology. These mounters are equipped with a high-rigidity, low-vibration structure frame and achieve top-class precision at a mounting speed of 0.13 second per chip.
The company is keen on disseminating their technology not only among the company members but also to the staff of supplying companies in hopes of nurturing successors to inherit these skills. They are continually conducting product development aiming at realizing higher precision and responding to the needs of individual customers.
i-Pulse Co., Ltd. http://www.ipulse.co.jp/
With financial aid provided by Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., i-Pulse was newly established in 2000 to succeed predecessor that had gone bankrupt. Since then, the company has worked vigorously on product development and the reformation of its corporate culture under the rehabilitating slogan of “a company with originality” in the field of manufacturing surface mounting equipment. Consequently, the company has enjoyed a doubling of sales in just three years. Of its current workforce of 100 employees, 22 joined the company during the six years after the company’s restart, and no one has yet to quit. The company’s motto is to be “cheerful, jolly, and yet serious.”
The 72 employees of a mounter manufacturing company that virtually went out of business were joined by three members from Yamaha Motor Co. to newly establish a company called i-Pulise. Thus, they were confronted by a host of problems from the beginning.
They had to restore the damaged trust among suppliers or customers, reform the corporate culture by raising employee morale, and above all reconstruct the business. The IT bubble economy burst in the year the company was established, thus significantly reducing market demand. They also discovered that their competitors were top-ranking enterprises listed on the stock exchange.
Thus, their challenge began as being a latecomer to a market loaded with problems. The company set the goal of establishing a “Fine Art Workshop” for developing original products competitive with those of the major manufacturers, while ensuring high quality to satisfy customer needs. Against this background, Mr. Suzuki is the one who proved the centripetal force in meeting this challenge by drawing upon the expertise nurtured through 40 years of experience.
“I was asked to help rehabilitate the company just as I was about to retire in four months. I was planning to spend my time leisurely, but thought that my time could be better spent by using my own experience in a more rewarding manner. I switched to this company at the age of 59, so I am the oldest one here.”
The company’s main product is surface mounting equipment, which is a high-precision industrial machine that places electronic parts such as chips on the printed circuit boards used in mobile phones or automotive electronics products. For this reason, the equipment requires high precision, high speed, and high efficiency. Normally, precision is mainly ensured in the early stages of design. Adjustments to compensate for minute errors that occur during the process of assembling various component parts involve the wedging of small adjustment objects called shims. This method, however, requires considerable labor and cost for overhaul and reassembly operations. Consequently, the company came up with the idea of employing the traditional skills of “fine chiseling” and “lapping finish” to enhance precision manually as skilled craftsmen to achieve a level of precision that does not require the use of shims.
“In the early days, our work atmosphere was far from the image of the Fine Art Workshop. No matter how hard I tried to improve precision at the finishing stage, my efforts would be meaningless if the precision in the pre-process was not good.”
This suggests that every single screw or part must be of high precision; otherwise, the finishing process would take hours. First of all, Mr. Suzuki began giving instructions regarding parts processing to the company’s suppliers.
Of course, they are proud craftsmen who insist on doing things their own way. In fact, some supplier staff members got so upset about the requests being made by Mr. Suzuki that they stormed out in the middle of a meeting. Yet, Mr. Suzuki did not give up on continuing heart-to-heart talks with them. As a result, the parts delivered later had a high level of precision of only 2% of a standard tolerance.. Mr. Suzuki’s enthusiasm rubbed off on them.
“The supplier board members who were initially blustered became impressed with our zeal at the end (laughingly). You can’t be successful in high quality production on you own, regardless of how hard you work on it. It is something achieved through teamwork, including the parts suppliers. They must also have the same goal.”
The members of the company’s Design and Production Departments did their best as well. The well-coordinated teamwork of the efforts put forth by each section and the manual finishing process wholeheartedly conducted by Mr. Suzuki resulted in improving the horizontal precision from the 30 μm (with 1 μm equivalent to 1/1000 mm) of the former products to 5 μm. Six months after the company was established, they were able to release their first product developed in-house that significantly enhanced mounting speed, reduced vibration, and made maintenance more efficient. Later they further improved precision up to the 2-μm level, which is now adopted for their lineup of products. The fame of the “Fine Art Workshop” where machines are individually handcrafted has spread to markets both in Japan and overseas.
Once a week, Mr. Suzuki holds an instructional seminar (called the “Ikuo Training School”) on the topic of inheriting skills for his employees and those of suppliers. He generously disseminates a wide range of craftsman skills and wisdom nurtured from his extensive know-how extending from fine chiseling and lapping finish techniques, to the making of professional tools. Moreover, he is always contemplating ways to improve existing methods and processes to achieve even higher precision.
“I want to progress further myself. I think this embodies the spirit of a monodzukuri expert. Throughout my entire career, I never did anything offhandedly. What is indispensable for monodzukuri is focusing all your energy into making improvements, and although results might not be seen immediately, never becoming complacent or compromising. I feel greatly rewarded when teaching because my students possess that type of mentality. Our development of the kind of products that cannot be copied even by major competitors represents the crystallization of the enthusiasm that all the staff have shown for monodzukuri.”
Driven by product development pursuing high precision, the company’s rehabilitation and reform of corporate culture have been successfully realized. The sparkling eyes of each company employee reflect their resolve to continue pushing the limits of monodzukuri.
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