Globalization
Worldwide Network of Manufacturing and Sales Activities
Minebea is a multinational enterprise with 28 manufacturing facilities and 43 sales-marketing offices in 14 countries.
Minebea began overseas production on a large scale first in Singapore in 1973. Since then, we have continued to expand manufacturing operations especially in Asia excluding Japan. As a result, production in the Asian region has today exceeded 80% of our total group output.
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Starting from Scratch in Tokyo
1951 saw Minebea taking shape as the maker specializing in miniature ball bearings in Itabashi, a northwestern ward of Tokyo. This plant was a small employer of just fifteen persons or so.
New Plant Opened at Karuizawa Aiming for Expansion
In 1956, Minebea moved its manufacturing plant to Saitama Prefecture adjacent further in northwest to Tokyo. In 1963, we established Karuizawa Plant for a full-fledged expansion of its production capacity; two years later, all the production facilities were moved to Karuizawa.
Over these years, our ball bearings kept increasing in demand while our product assortments being diversified, resulting in a ceaseless expansion of our business.
In those days, however, our manufacturing used to be labor-intensive as automation was not remarkably advanced yet similarly as other Japanese industries in general, on the one hand.
On the other, a latter part of the 1960s saw domestic makers at large rapidly growing, needing a larger number of additional workers, when the company name of Minebea was not favorably known yet in terms of local recruitment. These local situations placed the Company in a difficult position to obtain additional employees as needed. Consequently, Minebea decided to seek opportunities for further expansion no longer at home but overseas.
Mass Production Bearing in Singapore
Our overseas expansion program finally chose Singapore as being the most appropriate of several candidates, now that Singapore was supplier of ample local labor, at that time, with English spoken in general, while its government was active in inviting foreign investors including Japanese manufacturers, among others.
As a result, Minebea incorporated its first firm in Singapore in 1972; and in the year that followed, Minebea launched manufacturing operations these.
Our mass production of main products was largely based in Singapore until the late 1970s, when Japanese and other foreign firms began rushing to Singapore, on the one hand. On the other, there were plenty of foreign people working in Singapore but its government began limiting the number of foreign workers.
These situations made it harder for us to increase our manufacturing workforce also in Singapore, causing us to find another place to further expand our manufacturing operations.
Thai Production Started
We decided to move into Thailand because (1) the country has an abundant supply of labor, (2) Thai workers in Singapore proved to be diligent, (3) the Thai Government was keen to invite manufacturers, especially components maker such as Minebea, and (4) Thailand is a Buddhist country and has maintained friendly relations with Japan.
Our experiences included a hardship in terms of labor shortages in Japan as well as in Singapore. However, even in Thailand on a long-range perspective, availability of labor and land was foreseeable to reach a limit.
This thought made us avoid a vicinity of Bangkok or an industrial estate; instead, we built up our first Thai plant in Ayutthaya Province, which is an agricultural district so to speak.(The same thought has been applied to our selection of the location when setting up our new plants thereafter in Thailand.) To date our Thai plants have grown to become our largest manufacturing base with their combined output accounting for approximately 60% of our consolidates output.
Expanding into China, a future giant market
Setting our sights on an increase in our overall production capacity and the potential of the Chinese market that should possibly create a large demand for our mainstay products, we began operating in China in 1994, when we established Minebea Electronics & Hi-Tech Components (Shanghai) Ltd., our first local subsidiary. The Shanghai Plant, completed in 1996, is the world's largest miniature and small-sized ball bearing plant and our newest facility, incorporating extensive know-how amassed through manufacturing operation in five countries the world over and the latest and most advanced machinery and equipment.
In 2002, we established a joint venture company in Singapore with the Huan Hsin Group and began production of PC keyboards in August 2003 at Shanghai Shunding Technologies Ltd. (SST), established in Shanghai as a subsidiary of the Singapore joint venture company. * In March 2006, we dissolved the PC keyboard joint venture business in China.
Minebea's operation in China is its second largest mass-production base after Thailand.
