HAMAMATSU EPIC BRIEFING
A FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, CONSTANT QUALITY, AND CONTINUOUS INNOVATION HAMAMATSU PHOTONICS:
This article is based on a presentation given at EPIC’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in June 2023 by Mats Hede , Managing Director of Hamamatsu Photonics Norden.
F ounded in 1953 in Hamamatsu City, Japan as Hamamatsu TV Co., the company was renamed Hamamatsu Photonics in 1983 to reflect its development of a wider range of photonics technologies and products. Over the last 70 years, Hamamatsu Photonics has become a global photonics company specialising in optical sensors and components, cameras, light and radiation sources, lasers, systems for semiconductor inspection, spectroscopy, life sciences, and medical. One of its top-selling products is a range of high- sensitivity photodetectors, known as photomultiplier tubes, for which it has 90% of the global market. The company is present in all main application fields from medical, life sciences, industrial equipment, and non-destructive testing, to analytical equipment, measurement, optical communication, automotive, science and research, and consumer electronics. Its current workforce is just under 5,500 and in 2022, turnover was US$1.6 billion, derived from customers in more than 100 countries with 75% of sales outside of Japan. The company has three research centres and seven manufacturing facilities mainly in Japan but also in China and the US, and it has recently set up rapid prototyping centres in Europe, China, and the US to expedite the pace of development with customers.
FACTORS OF SUCCESS Mats puts Hamamatsu’s success down to the following factors: Continuity of strong and inspired leadership: The founder of Hamamatsu Photonics, Heihachiro Horiuchi, studied under Dr. Kenjiro Takayanagi, considered the father of Japanese television, and who was the first to display the Japanese character “ イ ” on a cathode-ray tube. Since then, Hamamatsu has developed photoelectric technologies in “the spirit of pursuing unknown and unexplored realms”. In 2009, Akira Hiruma, who had spent 30 years working and later running the U.S. subsidiary of Hamamatsu Photonics, became CEO. Under his watch, Hamamatsu’s photomultiplier tubes were instrumental in the detection of the Higgs Boson in 2013, and in 2015, the company’s photomultiplier tubes were used by Nobel prize winner Takaaki Kajita in his discovery of the oscillations of neutrinos. In 2022, the baton was handed to Tadashi Maruno, who had worked at the company for 40 years having held senior roles in the company’s manufacturing, semiconductor, photometry life, and medical systems. Customer satisfaction: Among the factors that can contribute to customer satisfaction, for Hamamatsu, like most other Japanese companies, is long- term thinking. Having been in existence for 70 years, as a photonics company, Hamamatsu is relatively old. However,
compared with the oldest Japanese company founded in 578 and the 300 plus companies that are 400 years old, it is relatively young. In any event, the company doesn’t measure itself financially on a quarterly basis as its product strategy and roadmap extends 5-10 years ahead. The main reason for this is that as many of its customers are compliant with FDA regulations or similar, they need a long-term, steady supplier. Accordingly, Hamamatsu stays in close contact with its customers throughout the life of a product. This is facilitated by having a strong local footprint through the creation of local sales and service offices. In this way, it is better able to understand the local ecosystem, and where necessary, engineers can be flown out from Japan to discuss product details with customers. This long-term approach also applies to employees in that Hamamatsu has always aimed to be an attractive and stable employer. As an example, when the company recently dismantled its office in Moscow, it offered to relocate all employees to Europe with both financial and moral support. Quality: Because 90% of its products are customised, quality is built-in during the design phase. Products are developed and designed together with the customer so that functionality, reliability, risk, and opportunities can be tailored to meet customers’ needs. Furthermore, being
20
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
INDUSTRY FOCUS 2023/2024
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker