As the growth rate of global smartphones has dropped, Japanese manufacturers, mainly producing mobile phones for mobile phone manufacturers, have begun to focus on the automotive industry, hoping to reduce the impact on their business.
Although it has been suppressed by Korean and Chinese Taiwanese competitors, robots are still the strength of the Japanese electronics industry. For every 10 original assembly robots in the world, there are 8 Japanese companies from the company, Hi-Tech, Yamaha, Fuji Machinery, and Juki.
The fastest robot can assemble more than 20 components per second, and some even have a thickness of less than 1/10 mm. Connect 10 robots into one production line and assemble 5,000 smartphones a day.
However, as the growth rate of smartphone sales slowed down, the placement machine industry also felt the pressure.
Although the placement machine is not the core business of Panasonic, the department led by this niche business is still the key to the company's recovery plan. However, the company's placement machine sales decreased by 10% in the fiscal year ending March, and the global market share of the business is about 30%.
Katsuhiko Omoto, head of the Panasonic factory automation department, believes that there is little hope of revival this year. "We don't expect much growth," he said in an interview with Reuters at the company's headquarters. About one-third of the equipment that is about the size of a cabinet is used in a Chinese factory to assemble a company's iPhone or other mobile device.
According to market research firm Technavio, the global placement machine market will grow from the current $4 billion to $5 billion to $7 billion in 2015.
Panasonic has experienced years of losses as the TV business is in deep trouble. The company will announce its quarterly results for April to June later on Wednesday. Thomson Reuters financial data services company StarMine based on the accuracy and timeliness of the top analysts forecast that the company's operating profit is expected to increase by about 30%, reaching 50 billion yen (about 510 million US dollars).
Panasonic's parts assembly robot business contributed approximately 1.4% of the company's revenue, but its operating profit accounted for 6%.
Smartphone falling back
Smartphone sales are still growing. US market research firm IDC expects global smartphone shipments to increase from 917 million this year to 1.5 billion in 2017, but the ultra-high growth rate experienced in the past five years will gradually Slow down.
IDC believes that sales in mature markets such as the US will increase by about 15% this year, down from 20.6% last year, and will further slow down to 4.6% in 2017. The growth rate of emerging markets will also fall from 35% last year to 12%. China accounts for about a third of global demand.
KatsuhikoOmoto believes that Panasonic can increase the market share of the placement machine by cooperating with many small Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, which are gradually occupying the market of Apple. Apple’s revenue in Greater China from April to June this year plummeted 43%. In addition, as the operating profit margin of the Panasonic placement machine business has dropped from 10% to 8%, KatsuhikoOmoto also plans to reduce the dependence of smartphone-related businesses from 30% to 25%, while increasing the automotive industry. Sales.
Adapt to market trends
Automated parking, collision warning systems, cameras, complex engines, suspension management computers and other equipment have increased the complexity of automotive electronic systems. In addition, the development of hybrid and electric vehicles also requires more electronic components than traditional fuel vehicles.
"The electronic components of the car will only increase," said Naoki Kobayashi, deputy chief engineer of Toyota's Lexus brand. He pointed out that the company's recently launched IS model has an electronic control unit that is one-fifth more than the previous model.
As a holding subsidiary of Hitachi, Hitachi High-Tech also hopes to excavate the car manufacturer and its supply chain.
“The smartphone and tablet market seems to have peaked,†said Masatoshi Kurosawa, general manager of Hitachi High-Tech. He added that no new consumer electronics products have been found to hedge against the decline in smartphones. His company and other placement machine manufacturers can usually receive notifications of new product releases 10 months in advance, as manufacturers need to purchase new production equipment early.
Cater to industry needs
Heavy machine executive Hiroshi Nakamura said that if it is to switch to the automotive industry, the placement machine will reduce the focus on speed and miniaturization, while focusing on enhancing traceability.
“The market has been paying attention to smartphones in recent years, indicating that everyone is working hard to produce high-speed equipment.†He said, “Automotive manufacturers have a stricter safety system, so they will not use sharp parts.â€
In the sample room of the heavy machine, Hiroshi Nakamura showed a robot that was able to take 6 photos each time the parts were assembled on the board. This data is stored in the database so that automakers can quickly trace production issues.
Yamaha has long supplied the placement machine for the automotive industry. The company also noted that competitors that originally focused on smartphones began to move to the automotive industry, putting competitive pressure on the company. In response to this situation, the company began to cooperate with Chinese smartphone manufacturers. Although the Panasonic high-speed placement machine they purchased has been reduced, Yamaha has been able to automate the assembly of connectors and the like through manual processes.
This product is very popular in Taiwan, where the annual salary has risen by more than 10%, pushing up labor costs. “Wage in China, Thailand and Vietnam are all rising, thus increasing the attractiveness of automation,†said Hiroaki Fujita, head of Yamaha's placement machine business.
The heavy machine that acquired the placement machine business last month is also very interested in this trend. "As long as it is faster than manual operation," Hiroshi Nakamura said.
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