Roll out of Vigilance campaign arming the company's commitment to its control businessAnnouncing VigilantPlant, Yokogawa's vision for the ideal plantShuzo KaihoriKanazawa oce53Yokogawa 100th AnniversaryTransforming into a Global Company under the Vigilance CampaignWith a growing reputation and thanks to winning preferred supplier contracts, Yokogawa’s control business expanded steadily, and yet cases still occurred where Yokogawa was not included even in the rst round of the tender process in Europe and North America because of its low prole. Recognizing the importance of branding in the control market, Yokogawa started its Vigilance campaign, which reected its commitment to watching customers’ plants around the clock, throughout the year. This message was welcomed by our oces outside Japan as it reected the value that they oer to customers, and it thus helped to unify all the Group companies. Gaining traction with our customers, this campaign entered a new stage in 2005 with the announcement of our VigilantPlant initiative for achieving the ideal plant. On the same day as that announcement, President Uchida revealed the goal of becoming the global No. 1 in the control business. This, combined with the release of the ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system, attracted much attention in the industry.In the same year, Yokogawa set up Yokogawa Electric International in Singapore to manage all of the control business outside Japan. Response centers were also established in several countries to answer inquiries from customers 24/7 and vigilantly monitor their control systems. Through these eorts, non-Japan sales more than doubled in the ve years starting in 2002, and Yokogawa gained recognition as a global player in the control market.In 2008, Yokogawa announced CENTUM VP as a platform to support VigilantPlant. This integrated production control system provides an environment that eectively integrates the control and information systems at the production site, and is the ultimate form of Yokogawa’s production control system.The Second Milestone of the VISION-21 & ACTION-21 Plan and the Financial Crisis in 2008In 2006, Yokogawa identied areas for strategic investment and set numerical targets for scal year 2010 that would serve as the second milestone for VISION-21 & ACTION-21. The plan was to capitalize on the structural reforms that had been carried out in the years leading up to scal year 2005 by expanding new businesses in such elds as measuring instruments, life sciences, and photonics, and thereby achieve signicant growth. Yokogawa established a life science facility in Kanazawa in 2005, and started manufacturing photonics products at the Sagamihara factory in 2007.In April 2007, Shuzo Kaihori became president. That same year, DRAM prices suddenly plunged and customers cut back investments in semiconductors, putting Yokogawa’s measuring instruments and semiconductor tester businesses into the red. The protability of the non-Japan control business also decreased, and demand in Japan contracted. With these unfavorable conditions, President Kaihori’s rst year saw higher sales but lower prots.At this point, Yokogawa judged that its business was at an inection point, because its cost structure was making it dicult to remain price competitive, and the control business was shifting from products to solutions. Thus Yokogawa started improving its cost competitiveness and adding more value to engineering.In scal year 2008, business conditions took a turn for the worse as a result of the global economic crises that followed events such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the sudden shrinking of the semiconductor market. Yokogawa’s operating income was barely positive, and net income was heavily in the red due to a reversal of deferred tax assets.Faced with these nancial diculties, Yokogawa designated the two years of scal years 2009–2010 as a period of structural reform in preparation for the next stage of growth, and started to reform its business structure and reduce xed costs. Yokogawa decided to withdraw from the ATE, photonics, and advanced stage businesses as it had determined that it had over-estimated the growth potential of these markets, and due to the shrinking semiconductor tester market. The company also reviewed its business portfolio, downsizing the magnetoencephalograph business, transferring the measuring instrument business to Yokogawa Meters & Instruments, spinning o the medical information system business, and setting up Yokogawa Medical Solutions. Yokogawa was also forced to solicit applications for a voluntary retirement program.
元のページ ../index.html#53