The path forged by those opening up the new market of ultra-high volume products

Electronic devices contain embedded printed-circuit boards (PCBs) which are used to control the devices. These PCBs require connectors to connect them to other PCBs and to modules. The market for microconnectors, used in consumer devices such as mobile devices which are popular with old and young consumers alike, is an attractive market for Hirose Electric.

Taking on the new business segment of ultra-high volume products

Yasuhito Muraki, from the Sales & Marketing Group, has been engaged in sales activities involving a certain global consumer device manufacturer active in this market. In the past we had provided products to this customer on a small scale, but had not supplied connectors for devices with a high sales volume. As a member of Hirose’s North American market sales force, of course, the use of our connectors in a large-scale project had been an ardent wish of his for many years. “This project would have sales 10 to 20 times that of projects involving conventional devices. I wanted to use this project as a new sales channel that would contribute to greater business,” he reflects. He was taking on ultra-high volume product business, a segment with which he had no prior experience.

However, pulling this off successfully required not only the technical capabilities and high levels of quality demanded by the client, but also the ground-up creation of an organizational structure. “We benchmarked our competitors, and found that there were companies which had specialized organizations in the U.S. for everything from sales to technology. If we wanted to wholeheartedly take on this business segment, we needed to create a similar organization,” Muraki explains. This business is now being carried out by a specialized organization consisting of 16 sales personnel and field application engineers (FAEs). In addition to the U.S. team there is also a specialized team in Japan, and an online support environment has even been created. “I convinced the company to put its all into creating an organization that would be able to follow market changes while keeping an eye on global trends,” says Muraki.

One of the members called in as an FAE to conduct direct interviews with customers to determine their needs in response to this request from sales was Tetsuya Oi, a member of the Engineering HQ that had been active in the consumer device segment. “It was my first experience being a dedicated member of a specific project. I had worked on an assignment in the Netherlands for a year, but this was my first time as an FAE. To be honest, I was worried about my language abilities and unsure about how I should take on operations,” he says, looking back.

Yuki Kobayashi, from the same department as Oi, was selected for the project as a product design member in Japan. Discussing what led to this, he explains, “When we received an inquiry from the customer, I had just been working on developing a product with specifications very similar to those the customer was requesting.”

This was the launch of a global project led by both Japan and the U.S.

Organizational strength and collaboration assist with a difficult project

The new project launch faced a variety of difficulties. One major challenge was that not only did it need to create a sales structure capable of meeting customer requests 24 hours a day, but that it also needed to clear the technical hurdles presented by product specifications. “One property of the product,” says Kobayashi, “was that it needed to provide 1.5 to 2 times the performance of our conventional products.” To meet these specifications, prototypes were repeatedly tested and verified. “The product’s performance requirements were quite different from the performance levels of our conventional products, so we lacked internal knowledge and expertise. We tested one prototype after another, using a trial and error approach, and also engaged in many discussions with production technology personnel regarding production equipment, and managed to successfully develop the product. Everyone, including sales, worked as a united team in this product development process.”

Oi, who interfaced directly with the customer as an FAE, faced not only the challenges of a language barrier, but also of differences in customer and corporate culture. “Even if a problem occurred, due to the high level of project confidentiality, they couldn’t share details with me by email or phone. I ended up having to go to the actual production worksite where assembly was performed,” says Oi. Even when going on-site, he was unable to enter the production site assembly line area. Ultimately, he had to have the broken connectors brought into a meeting room in the factory and to infer the cause of their failure based on their condition. In other words, the customer took a stance of making “voluntary product improvements” in line with actual production site conditions.

In addition to quality, there were numerous other issues that needed to be tackled, such as costs and rapid manufacturing line startup. Normally, building a single manufacturing line takes four months including die and equipment installation. This project, however, had an extremely tight schedule requiring numerous manufacturing lines to be set up in just one year. In order to accomplish this difficult task, the dedicated production technology team made major revisions to existing facility designs and had each partner supply several talented experts, with everyone gathering together to set up the production lines. “Having everyone in a single location also led to technical exchange, and enabled us to build an environment in which all of the project collaborators were able to build up expertise. We held several training camps with partner companies to be able to launch in a short amount of time, and as a result we created new synergy,” says Kobayashi.

Aiming to become the number one company in the microconnector market

Despite managing to set up manufacturing lines and deliver products to customer, Hirose was, unfortunately, not selected for the next project. Analyzing the situation, Muraki says, “Our focus on quality led us to set up many manufacturing lines, but this actually made a negative impression.” Rectifying this involved tripling the production capacity. “Inside Hirose we encountered vociferous opposition from production technology and factories – ‘We can’t maintain Hirose quality if we use the same methods as our competitors’ and ‘There’s just no way we can build lines like that’,” reflects Kobayashi. Nonetheless, the team drew in management and made every effort to maintain this business. As a result, they made sweeping revisions to product design and manufacturing processes, from the ground up, and succeeded in having their products selected for use in the next version, despite initially having been passed over. “We’ve now been increasingly able to laterally deploy what we’ve done to other projects as well, helping grow this business segment,” beams Muraki.

The project has also increased the amount of calls within the company for internal resources to be used effectively in order to flexibly handle business inquiries regarding ultra-high volume products. This project has helped further establish the idea that Hirose needs to shift to a design and manufacturing system that takes currency exchange risks into consideration if it intends to emerge victoriously in the global market. This has led the company to boldly press forth with a joint project with Hirose Korea, now a subsidiary, that unifies design and manufacturing. “We’ve always had a great deal of personnel exchange. Now we’re creating a global design and manufacturing system in order to become the number one company in the global microconnector market,” says Muraki, talking about the company’s new efforts.

A passion for manufacturing cultivated through the experiences provided by the project.

All of the participants in the project have gained a great deal from their experiences. “Not only did I toughen up mentally as the result of taking on the tremendous amount of work involved, but I also broadened my manufacturing knowledge through the discussions I had with production technology personnel. I hope to continue to not only increase my manufacturing technology knowledge, but also my customer-focused expertise,” says Kobayashi. Oi reflects, “I gained an understanding through first-hand experience of how a thorough comprehension of customer needs makes it possible to create products customers will use.” Lastly, Muraki says of the knowledge he acquired, “The Japanese approach of sensing what other parties seek by harmonizing ones mentality with them doesn’t work in global business. Instead, it is important to negotiate logically with others based on facts.”

This project taught its members the importance of actively taking on difficult challenges in order to succeed in the global market. Applying the expertise gained through the consumer device ultra-high volume product projects, to fields such as industrial machinery and automobiles will serve as a driving force for the further growth of Hirose Electric.