SNK America, Inc.

SNK JOBS are world leaders in the design and development of large machine tools for the aerospace, transportation, energy, construction and mining industries. SNK manufacturing large machinery that maximise efficiency Specializing in large machinery for the aerospace, automotive, marine, construction and energy industries, SNK bases its business model on traditional Japanese values of monozukuri combined with modern software solutions that maximise machine efficiency. “One of the reasons why we are chosen by our clients is that they know our machines can last up to thirty years.” For decades, Japan has been the mother of all machinery-producing countries – its machine tools industry a chief proponent of the nation’s post-war economic boom and a symbol of its great monozukuri tradition for manufacturing that is admired (and often imitated) the world over. Today, Japan remains a major global player in the machinetools sector, and in the last 10 years has set about reinventing one of its most important industries as it looks to fight off competitors and adapt to the challenges and opportunities brought about by modern technological advancements. While regional rival China is currently the country with the world’s largest machine tools industry, it gained its status from producing low-end machine tools (though it is now shifting its focus to manufacturing mid- to high-end products in order to meet global demand). In Japan, however, it is and has always been about quality over quantity, says Akira Nakanishi, President of Shin Nippon Koki (SNK), the machine tool company which specializes in large machinery for the aerospace, automotive, marine, construction and energy industries. “Put simply, our competitors cannot produce products of comparable accuracy and precision to ours at the same speed and price,” says Mr. Nakanishi. “This competitive advantage is bolstered by the Japanese philosophy of monozukuri which encourages us to arrive at solutions by listening to customers’ needs over time and gaining expertise through experience. This type of continuous improvement is known in Japanese as kaizen, whilst our characteristic attention to detail comes from monozukuri and the pursuit of perfection. “Other companies, for example from Taiwan, may be able to produce similar products but their lifetime is 3 to 5 years whereas ours will last 30 years because of the perfect precision with which every part is made. This is why we have been successful in serving our customers for such a long time,” the SNK president explains, whose company celebrates its 72nd anniversary this year. Never a company to stand still, SNK in recent years has put considerable focus on developing software to make its machines easier to operate and manufacturing more efficient in order to lower the cost of utilization without compromising on quality. “The biggest characteristic of our software is to maximize an operator’s efficiency and support with his control over the machine tool,” says Mr. Nakanishi. “Now, manufacturers all over the world are trying to achieve automation but manufacturing with large-size machine tools and the components they produce presents impossible obstacles to achieve complete automation. In other words, we must have humans present. Nevertheless, we have realized automation of measuring and machine control, as well as preventive maintenance software, and the automatization of these fields is expanding.” Complementing the human element of manufacturing still remains very much a priority for SNK, however, with a firm focus on improving productivity in line with worker improvements and developing software solutions which are based on listening to customer input. Indeed, while the company’s faith in mechanics and the grace of the human hand is apparent in equal measure, similarly the president believes investment in customer care is just as important as technological innovation for the company’s continued success. “One of the reasons why we are chosen by our clients is that they know our machines can last up to thirty years, and that once we have delivered the machines it does not mean the end of our relationship, but the beginning. That’s because we continue to maintain and improve their performance by working together with the clients. For example, we continue to provide after-sale support over the life of a machine to maximize the capacity or to deliver software to make it easier to operate,” says Mr. Nakanishi. “And since we spend so much time with our customers throughout the lifetime of the machines, we are able to ascertain what kinds of machines they may need in the future and in that way we continue to develop our innovation cycle.”