Expansion of overseas business

Aiming for further expansion to become an environmental company
that is recognized as a presence in the global market

* Affiliation department / position as of 2019

Toward new development of overseas business

Taking steady steps and moving gradually at ease may be compared to an elephant.
The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group's overseas businesses have steadily expanded over more than 40 years since establishing a representative office in Singapore in 1974. As of September 2018, we have developed businesses in 10 countries, mainly in Asia, and have placed local subsidiaries in each country. Recently, also due to M&A, the international business revenue, which was 28.4 billion yen in FY2016, became 47.1 billion yen in FY2018. We are now moving into a higher gear of growth.

It is not only the business results that are entering a new phase. Projects that symbolize the new era for the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group are moving and being completed one after another.
The representative example is the construction of a new factory for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Inc. in Malaysia. The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group has been responsible for the construction of many facilities, but there were only a limited number of cases where it was responsible for an entire major project exceeding 10 billion yen. However, T.T.E Engineering (Malaysia) Sdn. Bnd., the Malaysian subsidiary of Takasago Thermal Engineering Group, broke through this barrier through its involvement since the 1980s in a large number of projects mainly in production facilities in the electronic device and equipment industries. The company received an order for OSRAM Opto Semiconductor's new factory as a complete building and equipment turnkey project, and completed the project in 2017. "Turnkey" means literally "to hand over the facility in a state where the customer only has to turn the key to use it," meaning that the entire project is handled from beginning to end.

Also, in China, where we have been accumulating construction experience for over 30 years, mainly in facility construction, we implemented our first chemical plant turnkey construction project. We carried out the civil engineering work which is influenced by the weather ahead of schedule, and by devising creative approaches aimed at shortening the construction period such as using 3D CAD for the plumbing work, we completed the construction work without delay even with a very tight construction schedule. This project was led by employees at our local subsidiary in China (Takasago Construction Engineering (Beijing) Co., Ltd.).

In Indonesia too, we have taken steps into a new area. GODA® Cloud provided by the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is a tool that collects and accumulates operational data from the building's central monitoring device and analyzes the operational status from various angles, leading to improvements. Its major feature is that it can perform energy-saving tuning without being subject to geographical restrictions. We have a lot of experience with GODA® Cloud in Japan, but as the first case of deploying it overseas, we will start offering services to factories in Indonesia. Energy-saving tuning experts in Japan will remotely support the energy management personnel at the factory as necessary as part of the service.

Furthermore, the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is trying to change not only the content of the work but also the methods and structures. In our future international business, we will focus on setting up joint venture companies and partnerships with local partners as an option and try to establish our local business foundation more quickly.
In November 2017, we made Integrated Cleanroom Technologies Private Limited (ICLEAN), a manufacturer of clean room-related equipment and interior materials in India, a consolidated subsidiary. We will promote business development in India by making maximum use of ICLEAN's agile organizational capabilities and its knowledge, know-how, and sales network in the pharmaceutical field,

"Developing human resources" to support our overseas business

The Takasago Thermal Engineering Group' ability to continue to expend enormous energy to steadily expand its overseas business while accumulating trustworthy and high-quality work, depends on its development of human resources.
Local employees that we call "National Staff" support our overseas subsidiaries in 10 countries. In the past, we used the word "local staff," but now we refer to them as "national staff" as a sign of respect for the countries in which we are developing our business and for our staff who are responsible for the foundation of our business. In Singapore and Malaysia, where the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group initially set up offices (founded in 1974 and 1980, respectively), our national staff are active not only in technical and sales positions, but also as senior executives.

For this reason, the International Business Promotion Department of our International Business Headquarters plans various opportunities to continuously enhance the capabilities and awareness of our national staff through various approaches.
One of these is technical training in Japan for national staff who have served for 3 to 5 years. The highlight of the one-week training is a field visit where national staff can walk slowly around a construction site and also participate in meetings, etc.

Mr. Norihiko Mammitsu, Section Manager of the International Business Promotion Department, who is in charge of planning and management of the training, explains the aims: "Our biggest aim is for national staff to experience the way that we proceed with construction work in Japan and the way we think about work, and to bring back this awareness to their home country. For example, national staff who did not really understand the importance of cleaning at the site can understand the meaning deeply by seeing how employees of the same age take action to keep the workplace clean. We are getting positive responses from Japanese staff employed in local subsidiaries that communication has become easier with the national staff who have undergone training."
In this technical training, national staff attend lectures to help them understand what kind of company Takasago Thermal Engineering Group is from various angles, and take factory tours of Takasago Thermal Engineering's Technical Laboratory and Japan Pmac, a subsidiary responsible for the development and manufacture of equipment. We are trying to share with each national staff member an understanding of our business as a "comprehensive facility operator" and the processes we use to make products, including our quality management methods such as 5S and 6S. Furthermore, the national staff visit the showroom of a sanitation product manufacturer and the office of a plumbing processing company to try to learn what kind of products Japanese managers - who are often the customer - are imagining when they make requests to buildings and facilities. This is also an opportunity to learn about Japanese technology such as "prefabricated piping" that eliminates the need for on-site welding, greatly enhancing quality and safety.
Technical training has much room for further development in the future. Mammitsu says, "If it were possible, if our national staff could join the site as a member for six months to a year, I think that the training effect would be further enhanced. Rather than just looking from the outside, they would obtain deep learning by engaging in planning, implementation and confirmation themselves. In order to realize this, we must obtain cooperation from the domestic side, but I would like to focus on this as a possibility for the future." he says, describing his wish.

In addition, "Technical Presentation Meetings," where national staff from overseas subsidiaries give presentations on the work they have studied and practiced in their own country have been held since 2015. The best presenters qualify to participate in the "Group Technology Presentation Meeting" held for the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group as a whole, and this is a major goal for national staff. The national staff's presentations in English are a good stimulus for the Japanese employees, and also play a part in Takasago's "internal globalization." In addition, the national staff who are visiting Japan for technical training also attend the event.

The national staff who have acquired skills in this way go on to guide the next generation. In Thailand, we completed a training center in 2017 as a site for national staff executives from local subsidiaries to educate young staff. Various creative ideas have been implemented here so that the technical training can be made more practical, including drawing training and design training. This effort will be developed across the company in the future as an important topic in the Takasago Group.

Training national staff is not limited to technical aspects. The International Business Promotion Department, which is responsible for the business support of the overseas subsidiaries, has established a system equivalent to technology for sales too, and cooperates with the Southeast Asia Division to give instruction on the Takasago Group's sales methods. The system trains sales staff who value the fundamentals and who can reliably carry out a range of sales functions from information gathering, approaching customers, making proposals, and closing deals, to sharing information internally. Cooperation with the technical side is indispensable for the success of sales, so in the International Business Promotion Department, sales representatives and technical staff sit at neighboring desks and develop support activities while mutually supporting each other.
The success of our overseas business depends on our human resources. Based on this unwavering belief, the Takasago Thermal Engineering Group will continue to develop its national staff.