Canon Adding New Camera Plant as Production Returns to Japan

Canon Rumors Guy

Canon EOS 40D
CR Pro
Jul 20, 2010
10,779
3,158
Canada
www.canonrumors.com
HTML:
<em>Automation makes manufacturing at home more competitive</em></p>
<p><strong>TOKYO</strong> — Canon plans to have a new camera plant in Japan up and running by 2019 as it moves more production back home, relying on factory automation to lower the cost of domestic operations.</p>
<p>The Japanese electronics maker will acquire 300,000 sq. meters of land for a digital camera factory in southern Japan’s Miyazaki Prefecture as early as September. The plant will be Canon’s first new camera factory in this country since 2010, and will feature labor-saving assembly lines of the sort Canon is installing across its Japanese facilities to make domestic production cost-competitive. Total costs are projected to be around 20 billion yen ($181 million).</p>

<p>The facility will take over production of single-lens reflex cameras formerly manufactured at another Miyazaki plant. Canon will eventually consider bringing production of some compact digital cameras now made overseas back to Japan as well. The company produced 56% of its cameras and other offerings in this country in the year 2016, and plans to raise that figure to 60%. <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Canon-adding-new-camera-plant-as-production-returns-to-Japan">Read the full story</a></p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>
<div style="font-size:0px;height:0px;line-height:0px;margin:0;padding:0;clear:both"></div>
 
Interesting. The camera market is contracting overall as smartphones continue to erode the lower end. I'm surprised that automated production in Japan is lower cost than manufacturing in Thailand or other low-labor cost countries. Certainly a state of the art, automated, factory will produce excellent quality with very low variation.
 
Upvote 0
Dec 11, 2015
1,054
0
9VIII said:
This company is awesome!

"The market is shrinking, competition is stiffer than ever, no-one online seems to like our products... We're building another factory."

Yeah... Pretty much everybody on this forum hates Canon products ;)

Woody said:
Canon Rumors said:
Canon plans to have a new camera plant in Japan up and running by 2019 as it moves more production back home, relying on factory automation to lower the cost of domestic operations.

Sounds like Canon is getting ready to launch a full attack in the MILC arena.

Exactly my thoughts.
 
Upvote 0
Mar 25, 2011
16,848
1,835
Canon announced a few years back that all their products were being designed for robotic assembly. I suspect that they want to keep a stable workforce and are adding production to offset workers displaced by robots. That new factory is going to have far fewer workers.

Canon's big advantage in the market is their ability to manufacture cameras and lenses for less than the competition. They know that most buyers will select the lowest cost product that will do the job.
 
Upvote 0

Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
CR Pro
Nov 7, 2013
5,665
8,492
Germany
Canon Rumors said:
... as it moves more production back home, relying on factory automation to lower the cost of domestic operations ...
Funny how all around the world companies seem to recognize that if you want to built quality products you'll need at least some good quality workers and a fast and good access to quality control.
So a lot of the outsourcing and relocating of production sites is changed back - at least to a certain amount.
 
Upvote 0

Talys

Canon R5
CR Pro
Feb 16, 2017
2,127
451
Vancouver, BC
Maximilian said:
Canon Rumors said:
... as it moves more production back home, relying on factory automation to lower the cost of domestic operations ...
Funny how all around the world companies seem to recognize that if you want to built quality products you'll need at least some good quality workers and a fast and good access to quality control.
So a lot of the outsourcing and relocating of production sites is changed back - at least to a certain amount.

It's still cheaper and more profitable to have a virtual prison with slave labor make your product, in a country with virtually no employee rights and labor code. As Apple has demonstrated with the iPhone (I'm not singling Apple out; only using them as an example of many) it isn't unsound business practice.

However, there are other reasons to move to domestic production, and Made in Japan still carries value, just like Made in Germany.

Personally, I would pay about a 20% premium on 'regular' items to have them made in a country that promotes working conditions like mine (Canada) and for premium products like precision tools, I'd probably spend double. Call it prejudice if you like; I'm well aware that China can produce quality products, but they can also produce inconsistent products and junk, and I really dislike thinking that I got my microwave or camera lens cheap on the back of someone killing themselves to produce it. It's not like I'm super rich or anything; I'd rather just make do with less stuff.
 
Upvote 0
One would expect that as the camera and lens market is gutted on the low end, that successful companies would be the ones who own the high end. Canon is certainly one. With that rebalancing of their portfolio, you'd expect them to need more manufacturing capacity where they make there high end products. Dog bites man.
 
Upvote 0