1. Home
2. Supplier Database
3. Major Suppliers
4. Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
5. Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Business Report FY ended Mar. 2016

Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Business Report FY ended Mar. 2016

Mid-term Business Plan

-Under the mid-long term business plan, Dream 2020, consolidated sales of JPY 180.0 billion and a profit margin of 7% are targets set to be achieved by the fiscal year ending in March 2021.

-On the way to achieving targets set for the fiscal year ending in March 2021, by the end of Phase 2 (which covers the fiscal year ending in March 2016 to the fiscal year ending in March 2018) the Company aims to achieve an operating profit margin of 5.5%.

-The Company aims to increase its share of automotive electric parts such as motor and lamp controllers to 20% of its overall automotive parts sales from the current 6% to 7%, by the end of the fiscal year ending in March 2021. In view of the increasing demand for automotive electric parts due to increased automation, the Company will increase its investment in automotive electric parts business, and plans to make it the Company's second pillar after its main product line of mechanical seat parts, such as seat adjusters. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on September 1, 2015)

Major initiatives during the first year of Phase 2 (the fiscal year ending in March 2016)

-April 2015: Established the Imasen Global Development and Training Center.

• Consolidation of Group’s technical workers.
  
  
• The Company is developing automotive safety and driver-assist systems based on imaging technology, which it exhibited at the Tokyo Motor Show. These systems ensure a safe and comfortable driving environment for drivers by providing them a 360°view of the vehicle’s surroundings through onboard 3D monitors.
  
  
• The Company announced that it has completed the construction of the “Imasen Global Development and Training Center” and “Imasen History Museum” in Inuyama, Aichi Pref. Japan, where the Company began its operations. These facilities are located on the site previously occupied by the company’s former technology and research center. The new development and training center is a three-story building with a total floor area of 2,844 square meters. The building offers training rooms on the first floor, accommodations on the second floor, and research and development laboratories on the third floor. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on July 14, 2015)
  
  

-January 2016: Streamlined the organization of the production operations in the Chubu Region.


-April 2015: Established the Global Management Department.
-October 2015 and January 2016: Strengthened the operating organizations of subsidiaries overseas.

• The Company will launch an initiative to optimize its global production structure for automotive seat mechanical parts, which are its main products. Up until recently, the Company has rapidly expanded its operations outside Japan by establishing new plants in several countries. It is now set to increase its operational efficiency by optimally allocating production among these plants in consideration of its future business prospects, exchange rates, and labor costs. It will focus on enhancing production efficiency over the next three years to meet these targets. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on October 6, 2015)
  
  
• Initiatives to improve the profit structure of North American operations: The North American operations recovered to operate in the black, achieving both higher sales and operating profit in the fiscal year that ended in March 2016. The Company assigned the right people in the right place, streamlined the managerial function at the three business locations, and reduced costs by making use of the Mexican operations. In addition the Company is considering optimizing production operations according to foreign-currency fluctuations.
  
  
• Initiatives to respond to the declining sales/profits in Asia: The Company is building an organizational structure in Asia that can achieve sustainable profits, in spite of falling sales. It is localizing production of mainstream products; implementing cost-cutting initiatives; localizing procurement; launching in-house products; optimizing management and production functions in the three locations in China; and increasing sales, for example, by opening a sales office in Indonesia.

-June 2015: Set up the German office in Frankfurt.

• Launched sales activity to European OEMs.

-Training human resources in all functions by making use of its Global Development and Training Center.

>>>Financial Forecast for the Next Fiscal Year (Sales, Operating Income etc.)

R&D Facilities

-Hiroshima Technical Center (Higashi Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Pref. Japan)
-Tochigi Technical Center (Haga-Gun, Tochigi Pref. Japan)
-IMASEN Global Development and Training Center (Inuyama-City, Aichi Pref. Japan)

R&D Activities

-The Company is promoting following R&D activities;

Automotive components related business

-The Company developed seat adjusters that are extremely strong, capable of absorbing strong impacts to protect occupants.
-The Company developed smaller and lighter products by reducing the number of parts, using new materials to achieve greater fuel efficiency.
-The Company developed lift-up seat devices for welfare vehicles offering improved usability in the growing aging society.
-In order to create more room for occupants to get in and out from the third-row seats in minivans, the Company developed a “walk-in seat” that makes it possible to more quickly move the second-row seat in less time, while still maintaining occupant safety.
-The Company shortened product development lead time by using CAE analysis technology. Research and development was aimed at improving functionality and improving cost efficiency of seat slide adjusters, seat reclining adjusters, and seat height adjusters.
-The Company has developed power seat adjusters with high performance in terms of lower noise and vibration. It is working on integrating these products with anti-trap electric control units (ECUs) and other ECU systems to enhance control.


-The Company is making product proposals based on new architecture that enables products to be made even more compact and lighter in weight.


-In addition to developing and launching integrated control units, which enable simultaneous control of various devices, several equipment, the Company commercialized memory seat ECUs and ECUs for seatbelt pretensioners. It has also developed controlling units for adjusting the positions of seats, mechatronics products that integrate structural and electronics technology.
-Development of an actuator containing an ECU making use of mechatronics technology to control the angle of a head-up display that can show the vehicle's speed, with the drivers barely needed to change the direction where they are looking.
-The Company is developing safety devices that monitor driver conditions such as sleeping at the steering wheel, and then signals an alarm.
-Commercialization of a voltage conversion controller ECU to improve fuel efficiency.
-The Company is developing technology for electronic devices for environmentally friendly vehicles (EVs, HEVs), as well as technology that reduces traffic accidents based on image signals sent via onboard cameras, which can determine distances from vehicles ahead, which often go unnoticed by human eyes. These cameras in essence can serve as the actual eyes of drivers.


-Development of various types of new LED lamps such as rear-combination lamps, turn signal lamps, and cabin interior lamps.
-In the area of turn signals, the Company developed a sequential turn-signal lamp (a flowing winker) that blinks so as to make it easier for the other cars and pedestrians to know where the vehicle is planning to turn. This turn signal was developed, based on combining the electronic unit with the LED lamp.

-During FY ended March 2016, the Company invested mainly in facilities that produce round reclining adjusters and seat adjusters.