40From Reconstruction to RecoveryYokogawa managed to rebuild its business after the war and initially focused on telecommunications infrastructure for the Ministry of Communication (predecessor of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, and today’s NTT Group) and electric power companies, which were carrying out many projects for the reconstruction of Japan. The year after the war ended, Yokogawa won a line tester order from the Ministry of Communication, which was working hard to rebuild and improve the telephone and telegraph networks. After two years of R&Ds, Yokogawa shipped the rst line tester in 1948.The line tester is an instrument that monitors and measures transmissions between relay stations and terminal stations for long-distance telecommunications. It is composed of an audio CR oscillator (the rst such product in Japan),1 a power controller, and a level meter, which are all mounted on an iron stand. Yokogawa’s line tester was highly acclaimed and several hundred sets were shipped for use in relay stations across Japan. This line tester was Yokogawa’s main product in those days. At the same time, the number of orders from electric power companies increased, and thus Yokogawa continued to grow.By selling its Koganei and Kawagoe factories, Yokogawa increased its capital and was able to go public in November 1948 (listed in May 1949), thus setting the stage for further growth.In 1949, sales fell sharply as a result of the Dodge recession, and Yokogawa introduced technical conferences where employees could freely discuss research and development trends and new products, and set up a committee for proposing eciency improvements. In 1950, a planning department and planning committee were set up for strengthening management. Meanwhile, wartime price controls were lifted and corporate investment improved as a result of a surge in procurement for the Korean War, both of which beneted Yokogawa’s business.An Overseas Visit and the Decision to Develop ER InstrumentsAround that time, two crucial events laid the foundation for Yokogawa’s subsequent growth. One was a visit by Senior Vice President Miyaji Tomota to the US and the other was the decision to develop electronic instruments for industrial use. In December 1950, shortly after the ban on overseas travel was lifted, Mr. Tomota took a three-month trip to the US. He visited companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Bendix Aviation, both of which would form technical partnerships with Yokogawa, and discussed various matters with their sta. Exposure to these companies’ leading-edge technologies stimulated Yokogawa’s product development eorts. This tour and subsequent business communications with the US companies led Yokogawa to introduce advanced management tools such as IBM computers and to launch the mass-production of general-purpose items by small manufacturing subsidiaries (the division system, started in 1953). Through such means, Yokogawa was able to boldly consolidate products and specications and thus overcome the sharp rise in raw material prices caused by the special procurement boom during the Korean War.The trip also gave Yokogawa condence in developing industrial instruments. A few years earlier, around 1948, there had been heated debate within Yokogawa on which business to focus on: industrial instruments, for which demand was expected to increase on the back of the growing oil and chemical industries, or measuring instruments for communications and aviation, in which Yokogawa had a solid track record. Yokogawa subsequently decided to focus on industrial instruments, with an eye on expanding automation in the US and Europe, and this business trip supported that decision.Yokogawa’s History —— Chapter 2Wide-angle instrumentLine tester1An oscillator generates xed-amplitude, -frequency pulses using a DC power source without external inputs. "CR" stands for condenser and resistor. CR oscillators are mainly for low frequencies and can be downsized.From Postwar Recovery to Rapid Economic Growth and Oil Crisis (1948–1974)
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