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Tag: Japan

SG Holdings Snaps Up Morrison Express

Posted on by David Priestman

SG Holdings, a leading Japanese logistics company, today announced its acquisition of Morrison Express, a global freight forwarding and logistics service provider renowned for its expertise in semiconductor and high-tech logistics. This strategic acquisition will enhance the capabilities of the SG Holdings Group, significantly expanding on its Asian market presence and strengthening its position as a global leader in specialized logistics services.

The acquisition brings together Morrison Express’s strong competitiveness in the technology sector, particularly in semiconductors and high-tech products, with the SG Holdings’ extensive logistics network and innovative supply chain solutions. Particularly in relation to the freight forwarding business, Morrison Express’ strength in air freight and high-tech verticals will be complementary with the ocean freight forwarding and commercial verticals (apparel and daily sundries) in which EFL Global, the Group’s core freight forwarding company, has its strengths. This complementary partnership, characterized by minimal overlap, creates a powerful synergy that will deliver enhanced value to customers across the globe.

“The acquisition will significantly enhance global network coverage, allowing the SG Holdings Group to provide better logistics solutions across different regions.” said Mr. Bokuto Yamauchi, the head of Global Strategy Department – SG Holdings and Chairman and CEO of the Expolanka Group. “Morrison Express’ established relationships within the technology sector and strong Asian market presence, combined with their expertise in semiconductor logistics, perfectly complements our existing capabilities and forward-thinking approach to supply chain management.”

The merger delivers immediate value to customers through enhanced operational efficiencies, powered by access to new resources, cutting-edge technology, and expanded infrastructure – all working in concert to provide faster, more reliable service. With an expanded geographic reach, the combined entity offers closer proximity to customers, ensuring more responsive support and service delivery. Customers will benefit from comprehensive end-to-end supply chain solutions spanning air, ocean, rail, and road freight, complemented by tailored solutions that leverage Morrison’s strong supplier and partner relationships in the technology sector.

This strategic merger reinforces the combined organization’s dedication to delivering high standards and innovative solutions across all service offerings. Through shared expertise and resources, the integration positions the company to stay ahead of evolving industry trends and exceed customer expectations in an increasingly dynamic global market.

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Joloda Hydraroll Launches in Japan

Posted on by David Priestman

Joloda Hydraroll Ltd., material handling expert and leading provider of loading and unloading solutions, announced today the opening of its new office in Kyoto, Japan. The move is designed to strengthen customer service and support for existing blue-chip customers in Japan, while underlining the intention for growth in the Japanese market.

The Joloda Hydraroll brand has established a strong presence in Japan via its distributor network in the past 45 years. The most prominent loading and unloading solution is the skate and track system, which is synonymous in Japan with the name ‘Joloda’.

Joe Banerjee, a member of the Joloda family for more than 30 years, has been appointed General Manager of Joloda Japan K.K. He will play a key role in meeting the company’s growth goals in Japan and raising awareness for automated loading systems in automotive, FMCG, and packaging industries.

The logistics industry in Japan is facing a significant challenge as new legislation comes into effect, dubbed the ‘2024 bug’. The law limits truck drivers to a total of 960 hours of overtime during one calendar year, which represents a major reduction.

In addition to the pressure placed on logistics companies from a spiked demand for home deliveries, industry researchers and consultants predict the regulations could exacerbate the driver shortage further, with truck drivers resigning as a result of depressed wages. To prepare, companies are being encouraged to proactively adopt new labour-saving and time-saving technologies.
With the opening of its new office in Japan, Joloda Hydraroll is well-positioned to provide a high level of customer service and support, helping to ensure the logistics industry in Japan continues to meet the growing demand for transportation of goods.

Wouter Satijn, Sales Director at Joloda Hydraroll, comments: “We are committed to helping logistics companies worldwide improve their operational processes, and we recognise the importance of strengthening our global presence to achieve this. For companies in Japan affected by the new legislation, our automated systems can help speed up the loading and unloading process, reduce driver waiting times, and improve the efficiency of each journey. Opening our commercial office in Japan enables us to strengthen our commitment to both new and existing customers during this challenging time.”

Joloda Hydraroll continues to expand its global footprint, ensuring that it can provide the best service to its clients worldwide. Including its distributor network, Joloda Hydraroll is now present in more than 30 countries worldwide. The launch of Joloda Japan K.K. follows the opening of Joloda Hydraroll SAS in France in 2022.

At Joloda Hydraroll, we’re more than ‘off-the-shelf.’ We automate and innovate, making manual solutions more effective. As global leaders in loading solutions, no problem is too great – we want to bring ease, efficiency, and safety to the movement of goods. To take the strain out of warehousing and logistics, we offer the ideal solutions to overcome any existing loading challenges, regardless of shape and size. We’re here to lighten loads, no matter what. And we’ll be by your side every step of the way.

NTN Streamlines Warehouse Operations

Posted on by David Priestman

Infor Japan K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Infor, the industry cloud company, has announced that NTN Corp., a manufacturer and seller of bearings, driveshafts and precision equipment, has rolled out its Infor WMS warehouse management system.

NTN will use Infor WMS as its supply chain execution solution to combine warehouse management, labour management, transportation management and third-party logistics (3PL) billing management into a single integrated and rational business process for the entire supply chain. In addition to helping achieve on-time shipping and delivery to customers, Infor WMS is also enabling NTN to streamline operations through standardisation and visualisation of finished product shipping processes at all of its warehouses and plants across Japan.

Background

Since it was founded, the NTN Group has embraced its “Founders’ Spirit” (comprising a “Frontier Spirit,” which encourages it to keep challenging, and a “Coexistence and Co-prosperity Spirit,” which encourages it to develop together with society). With this in mind, it has expanded globally in line with its corporate philosophy of “We shall contribute to international society through creating new technologies and developing new products.”

NTN is working to enhance the business foundations that underpin its operations so that it can continue delivering sustainable growth. It will do this by not only enhancing its fundamental technologies and core products, while expanding into new fields that take advantage of the core technologies it has developed over the years, but by also driving digital transformation (DX) to achieve more sophisticated business management and create new business models.

NTN adopted its previous core business system in the 1980s, but the system had aged to a point where operation and maintenance had reached their limits. In addition, the system was seriously impacting business continuity due to a shortage of engineers, software updates not being implemented and security risks. NTN also had to address limited traceability of business transactions (including product movement records), inefficient inbound/outbound operations at its domestic warehouses, and enhance the standardisation of finished product logistics management. On top of that, it needed to develop a system platform for its DX initiatives.

NTN therefore launched a project to rebuild its core business system. This entailed adopting Infor WMS for a range of systems, including inbound and outbound operations at its warehouses and production history management at its plants. NTN chose Infor WMS for a number of reasons, including its extensive functionality; it enables efficient implementation of business reforms with the purpose-built package; it has been adopted widely in Japan and overseas with extensive integration with ERP; and it enables the creation of a new, innovative logistics platform with future potential. The strong support provided by Infor was yet another reason for NTN’s adoption of Infor WMS.

Results

NTN  adopted three Infor WMS modules for inbound, outbound, and logistics cost management at 52 sites across Japan including 17 regular warehouses, three automated warehouses and 32 plant shipping facilities. Simultaneous operation of all 52 sites was a prerequisite for the project because a range of departments would need to access all warehouses at the same time. Using iPads to efficiently conduct remote training and proficiency testing, the company succeeded in aligning operations at all sites.

The planned rollout was able to avoid initial concerns that adopting the new system would cause confusion in the workplace, leading to delays in receiving and shipping at the warehouses and issues with inventory accuracy. Anticipated results were achieved, including the standardisation of warehouse operations and finished product shipping processes, management of logistics costs, and connection between logistics costs and receiving/shipping transactions.

Receipt and shipping operations were streamlined as well because the new system enabled cross-docking, with products shipped immediately after receipt. This enabled same-day processing for work that previously took two or three days to complete. The benefits of an integrated ERP included being able to maintain safe inventories for each warehouse and each item registered in the ERP and, through integration with transportation lanes registered in the ERP, it also enabled the streamlining of finished product logistics by automating tasks that were previously done manually. Standardisation of outer labels and use of QR codes also enabled finished product traceability.

Koji Takahashi, NTN executive officer and IT manager, commented: “The adoption of Infor WMS has enabled us to instantly identify business-related issues, and then improve and enhance the efficiency of those processes, through the standardisation and visualisation of finished product shipping processes at all of our warehouses and plants across Japan.

“With improved connectivity with other systems, and other benefits it offers, we have no doubt that we made the right decision in adopting Infor WMS. We plan to add additional warehouses and plant shipping facilities in the future as we expand our businesses and distribution warehouses, so we look forward to taking advantage of Infor’s project management capabilities and global support systems.”

Dexterity and Sumitomo partner in Japan

Posted on by David Priestman

Dexterity, the creator of full capability robot solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with the Sumitomo Corporation to deploy 1,500 Dexterity-powered robots in warehouses across Japan.

Sumitomo Corporation, a Japan-based Fortune 500 multinational, signed an exclusive distributorship agreement in Japan with Dexterity to push into the Robots as a Service (RaaS) business in Japanese warehouses. Prior to signing this distribution agreement, Sumitomo invested in Dexterity in 2020 through Presidio Ventures Inc., Sumitomo’s US-based corporate venture capital arm.

Using Dexterity’s SaaS-based robotic intelligence platform, will help customer benefit from full task robots – standard industrial robot arms equipped with Dexterity’s intelligence software that helps them solve the toughest to automate jobs in the warehouse. Dexterity’s full-stack robotic platform provides robots machine learning-enforced capabilities to help them build multi-SKU pallets on the fly, singulate and induct messy flows of parcels and bags, as well as picking and packing easily damaged items like bread and cake.

To date, Dexterity’s engineers have developed, tested, and overseen the installation of all its robots, resulting in more than 40 million goods picked in production at warehouses across the US.

Working together with Sumitomo will expand access to full task robots in Japan and ensure these systems will fit within existing Japanese warehouse workflows.

“The full task robots we have deployed have only increased demand for flexible automation that can operate in existing workflows and infrastructure,” said Dexterity CEO Samir Menon. “Partnering with Sumitomo will accelerate Dexterity’s customers in getting FTE robot systems up and running in their facilities.”

In addition to working with Dexterity to deploy robots with Japanese customers, Sumitomo will also work with Dexterity to open a demo facility in Japan. Opening in October 2022, the facility will demonstrate to Japanese supply chain leaders how inbound and outbound materials at a warehouse can be connected with intelligent robots.

Sumitomo plans to deploy Dexterity’s parcel singulation and induction solution with its first Japanese customer by Q1 2023.

The announcement follows news that Dematic, one of the premier providers of supply chain solutions, has partnered with Dexterity to expand deployments in North America and Europe.

Paper E-Wrap on show in Japan

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Japan is a country with many different facets and passions, but it is also one of the world’s birthplaces of e-commerce, with a mature market and well-defined trends. Japanese consumers know their mind: they prefer to have a large selection of goods, fast and accurate deliveries and, lastly, high quality packaging.

Sitma believes it can provide a tangible solution to these needs. This is why, at the end of summer 2022, it will be at Logis Tech Tokyo: a worthy conclusion to a very busy trade fair season. Sitma already took part in the Japanese trade fair in the past, though for the first time it will now display a machine in an operational configuration: the E-Wrap in the paper packaging version.

On the one hand, the September event confirms Sitma’s support for in-person trade fairs and, on the other hand its commitment to the Japanese market. It already operates in it through its Tokyo branch, which has been the focal point of its business strategies for over 30 years. It could not have been otherwise, since this area is a reference for the whole of the Far East, especially for the world of e-commerce logistics, which has undergone substantial growth in recent years.

Indeed, the value of the Japanese market has more than doubled in less than 10 years, going from ¥8.46 trillion in 2011 to ¥19.28 trillion in 2020 (over US$140 billion). It is now the fourth-largest market in the world after the United States, China and the UK. Apart from its economic value, the Japanese e-commerce market is one of the most crowded and challenging: indeed there are thousands of companies involved in the processes of buying, selling, sorting and delivering goods.

There is a widespread supply chain that works to support a very broad selection of products, ranging from interior design items to electronic devices, with differentiated purchases according to gender and age. However, data relating to purchasing habits is somewhat surprising. For example, unlike other areas of the world the demand for books is one of the predominant items and applies to both women and men (with 58% of the former resorting to online purchases and 55% of the latter).

Then come electronic devices, which are mainly purchased by men: 61% do so online, investing an average of ¥1,200 per month. In third place come fashion and clothing, which are instead mostly chosen by women: 70% of them order them online, investing around ¥1,000 every month. Such a demand for products significantly increases the level of skills required of companies working to support sorting and delivery hubs, both in terms of technology and the ability to generate efficiency.

In short, the challenge is huge. Along with the presence of numerous operators and the extensive supply of goods, the specific logic governing the market must be considered as well. Japanese society is indeed permeated by an ethical and working culture that minimises downtime. People’s lives are often organised according to “just-in-time” principles and the Japanese expect the same precision when placing orders online: a factor that further raises the bar of competition.

On a technological level, this means not only being able to have fast and high-performance machines but, for example, equally efficient weighing and tracking systems that work in sync with software packages to manage big data.

Paper E-Wrap: Western style and oriental spirit

Why did Sitma choose to take the E-Wrap to Logis Tech Tokyo? Because it is easy to use, though it brings huge benefits in terms of packaging speed, precision and quality of work. Plus, Japan is a rich country with consumers who, as in the most developed markets, are particularly attentive to the latest sustainability trends.

Sitma says the Paper E-Wrap is a perfectly tailored solution for the market from this point of view too, as it is a machine with a strong focus on sustainability. Indeed, it can pack according to an approach that takes into account the three dimensions of the object, following its volumes and limiting the use of wrapping material. The packaging also takes place by using heat-sealable paper, a material that ensures a very low environmental impact.

There is one last aspect that makes the Paper E-Wrap a winner: as mentioned, the Japanese market is largely based on the purchase and sale of small or medium-sized objects such as books, technological devices, video games and clothes. All these objects can be effectively packaged by means of heat-sealable paper, allowing for tailor-made packages that can withstand a weight of up to 2kg. These characteristics have already decreed the success of the Paper E-Wrap at European trade fairs Ipack-IMA and LogiMAT. The E-Wrap is now ready to conquer Japan as well.

Sitma will be at the next edition of Logis Tech Tokyo at stand 102 – Hall 3 from 13 to 16 September 2022.

 

DoKaSch strengthens presence in Japan

Posted on by Keith McKinley

DoKaSch Temperature Solutions continues to expand its business in Asia. With the dedicated subsidiary DoKaSch Temperature Solutions K.K. in Tokyo and a new service station at Narita International Airport, customers in Japan now have optimal access to the “Opticooler” – high-quality and reliable temperature-controlled packaging-solution by DoKaSch Temperature Solutions.

Additionally, the specialist for temperature-controlled packaging solutions will be presenting its active container solutions at INTERPHEX Japan 2021 from 8th – 10th December at booth 8-36.

Japan is considered an important production and export centre for pharmaceuticals in the Asian-Pacific region as well as worldwide. Especially in terms of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines, the demand for pharmaceutical cold chain capacity is increasing. Narita International Airport has one of the largest temperature-controlled storage facilities for airports in Japan, the Cargo Climate Control Terminal (CCC). The airport handles half of all pharmaceutical trade in Japan, making it one of the most important hubs for both import and export.

With its office in Tokyo and the new depot at Narita International Airport, DoKaSch Temperature Solutions is strengthening its network in the region and worldwide. In this way, the solution provider for temperature-controlled packaging contributes to a reliable cold chain for highly sensitive pharmaceutical products, especially during the pandemic.

The capacities of RKN and RAP Opticooler at Narita Station can be increased at any time and immediately so that the required number of containers is available for each flight. Back in July, for example, DoKaSch Temperature Solutions K.K. provided Opticoolers for a large-scale and very important transport operation of vaccines.

“I see many opportunities for Opticooler in the important Japanese pharmaceutical market and beyond, because of its technical characteristics, exceptional reliability and availability. Because of our proximity and extensive network, we can serve customers quickly and reliably,” said Kazuyoshi Kakizawa, Head of DoKaSch Temperature Solutions K.K.. The experienced industry expert is responsible for the further development and expansion of DoKaSch’s business in Japan and also for the company’s operational activities in the East Asian island state.

Andreas Seitz, Managing Director of DoKaSch Temperature Solutions, added: “Japan is a major production and export centre for pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. Therefore, we decided to open a new DoKaSch office and station at Tokyo. It is directly related to our growth strategy in Asia and ideally complements our extensive global network. This allows us to further ensure that our Opticooler reaches our customers quickly and thus contribute to a smooth and reliable cold chain.”

DoKaSch says Opticooler is an extremely reliable, temperature-controlled packaging solution. Electrically powered and fully climate controlled, the active containers can both cool and heat without using dry ice or other refrigerants. They maintain the desired temperature level, e.g. between 2°C and 8°C at all times and regardless of external climatic conditions. This makes them the ideal solution for the safe transport of highly sensitive and valuable pharmaceutical products that must always be protected from temperature fluctuations.

Customers who would like to see and inform about the Opticooler can meet Kazuyoshi Kakizawa at this year’s INTERPHEX Japan 2021 from 8th – 10th December at booth 8-36.

INTERPHEX Japan 2021 is Japan’s largest exhibition for pharmaceutical and cosmetics manufacturing/packaging technologies. With 23 years of history, INTERPHEX Japan is known as the best business platform to network with industry top leaders from pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry in Japan and Asia. The show is held inside INTERPHEX Week Tokyo; Asia’s leading comprehensive pharma and cosmetics event.

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