Nikon, the Mitsubishi company famous
for fine cameras and semiconductor manufacturing equipment,
is leading the advance of digital photography. Its CoolPix
995 makes digital imaging a more compelling technology than
ever in mainstream cameras. |
High-end
digital cameras that rival single-lens reflex (SLR) film
cameras in performance have become available from Nikon
and other manufacturers in recent years. But they still
carry hefty price tags despite progress in lowering costs.
Nikon made digital photography widely affordable with its
CoolPix line of medium-priced cameras. In fact, the CoolPix
line has become an industry standard for superior quality
in middle-market digital cameras.
Since the first CoolPix camera debuted in 1997,
the CoolPix line has won acclaim for affordable, high-quality
imaging. The cameras are popular with demanding amateurs
and also in a wide and growing range of professional applications.
Their resolution, especially, has increased steadily. From
the 1,310,000 pixels of the original CoolPix 900, it rose
to 3,340,000 in the Cool Pix 990, which appeared in spring
2000. The CoolPix 995 inherits the 990's 3,340,000-element
charge-coupled device. But the new model is even more compact
and sports a four-power zoom Nikkor lens. |
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 It's
the Coolest one yet. |
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Ryoshoku,
a Mitsubishi Corporation subsidiary, is revolutionizing
Japanese wholesaling. Along the way, it has become Japan's
largest wholesaler of processed food products, by far, with
annual turnover of about ?700 billion (about $6 billion).
"We have streamlined logistics by consolidating
the most troublesome work at specialized processing centers,"
explains Ryoshoku's Masaharu Katsumata. He runs one of those
centers, a brand-new facility near Tokyo. His company operates
nine centers like his throughout Japan and scores of simpler
distribution centers.
Wholesalers' "most troublesome work"
in Japan is preparing individual shipments. "U.S. retailers
purchase most of their merchandise in the big cartons shipped
by the manufacturers," notes Katsumata. "Wholesalers
simply distribute the goods. But Japanese retailers buy
most of their merchandise in smaller lots. We need to open
the cartons from the manufacturers, withdraw items in the
amounts ordered by the retailers, and place those items
in shipping containers."
Katsumata's center ships 300,000 items a day
in 6,000 containers. "Accuracy is everything,"
he stresses. "Shipping mistakes antagonize retailers,
and the follow-up processing costs time and money. We've
reduced the rate of shipping errors to less than one in
one hundred thousand."
Ryoshoku also has reduced waste in packaging
materials dramatically. That effort helped earn an ISO 14001
certification for environmental management--rare in the
wholesale industry.
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A scale weighs each delivery
container before it goes out the door. The computer
"knows" what is supposed to be in each container
and, therefore, how much the container should weigh.
Inspectors double check the contents of any container
that differs significantly from the predicted weight.
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| Katsumata
points to the production date markings. Ryoshoku ships
on a first-in, first-out basis and refuses to accept
out-of-date goods. |
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| Each
container carries a shipping list that activates electronic
indicators to tell the people on the line what and
how much to pack. |
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| Ryoshoku
delivers goods to retailers in returnable plastic
containers. Its quality control procedures have all
but eliminated shipping errors. |
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| Nippon
Mitsubishi Oil, the biggest oil company in Japan, has adopted
a unified brand for its nationwide network of gasoline stations.
The company is the product of the April 1999 merger between
Mitsubishi Oil and Nippon Oil (Nisseki). It had marketed
gasoline since the merger through distribution networks
that operated under the Mitsubishi and Nisseki names. On
July 1, it began conducting all its distribution under the
single name, Eneos. That name is a compound of the word
energy and the Greek word, neos, for new. |
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"Premium or regular? And shall
we check your oil while you're here?" |
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Will
cellular telephones gradually acquire the capabilities of
handheld computers? Or will the handhelds displace the cell
phones by acquiring their communications capabilities? Whichever
technology emerges on top in the end, you can be sure that
Mitsubishi Electric will be an important player. The company
is a leading supplier of cellular telephones around the
world. And it now is becoming a serious competitor in handheld
computers.
Mitsubishi Electric's French subsidiary Trium
recently launched the Mondo, a combination dualband phone,
personal organizer, and pocket personal computer. Mondo
lets users browse the World Wide Web and send and receive
E-mail at their convenience. It connects to computers for
exchanging data and plays MP3 music files. The Mondo even
sends faxes.
As a telephone, the Mondo supports mobile conference
calls with up to six people at a time. The product also
includes a voice recorder function. Talkative types will
welcome the two-and-a-half hour talk time afforded by the
long-lasting battery. The standby time is fully 100 hours.
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| Mitsubishi
Electric's French Connection . |
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Tokio
Marine has developed an antitheft system for automobiles.
Like other antitheft systems, Tokio Marine's system will
alert the owner by cellular telephone or pager if an unauthorized
person takes the wheel. It also will let the owner monitor
the location of the stolen vehicle, as some other systems
do.
Tokio Marine's system, however, also will let
owners sound the horn in the vehicle by remote control.
That will call attention to the theft. The system even could
let the owner switch off the engine by remote control. That
would involve issues of traffic safety, though, which will
need to be resolved before incorporating such a function.
A control center can sound the vehicle's horn on behalf
of the owner as necessary.
Developing the antitheft system in cooperation
with Tokio Marine is Omron Corporation, a leading manufacturer
of process control equipment. The partners have achieved
dramatic cost reductions, which will make the system 90%
less expensive than comparable products.
Vehicle theft is becoming a serious problem
in Japan. Owners reported 56,000 stolen vehicles in 2000,
up 63% over the total in 1997. Professional thieves make
off with high-priced, late-model vehicles and ship them
to other Asian nations. Tokio Marine's antitheft system
promises to help put a dent in that element of Japan's trade
surplus. |
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"My Galant! It was here just
a moment ago!!!" |
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IT
Frontier, the result of the April 2001 merger of five Mitsubishi
Corporation subsidiaries, is off to a fast start. It announced
a tie-up on June 5 with India's two largest information
technology companies: Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro
Limited. The Indian companies will share software development
capabilities with IT Frontier to configure information technology
solutions for Japanese customers.
Also on June 5, IT Frontier announced a tie-up
with the Japanese company Network Associates in Internet
security. The partners will provide customers with advanced
support for Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption. That encryption,
which relies on two-way verification, ensures the confidentiality
of information. |
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NYK
Line, the original Mitsubishi company, recently announced
two advances in handling cargoes in containers. The world's
biggest marine transport company, NYK Line also operates
overland transport links. Most of the cargo that it handles
through intermodal--sea and land--connections travels in
20- and 40-foot long containers.
One advance is water-absorbent sheet for preventing
dew condensation on the container ceilings from dropping
onto cargoes. NYK Line calls the invention CT (Condensation
Terminator) Sheet. Customers will stretch the sheet across
the top of the container interiors by fastening it easily
to lashing rings. The CT Sheet will be especially valuable
in preventing spoilage of such cargoes as coffee, cacao,
and grains. It also will prevent rust damage to canned goods
and water damage to cardboard cartons and wooden items.
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Meet
Mr. CES
The other
recent advance is a service that lets customers access 14
years of data about conditions inside containers. Customers
access the data via the World Wide Web. NYK Line has dubbed
that service Mr. CES, for Container Environment Measurement
Service. Customers can access data about trends in temperature,
shock, and other conditions inside containers on different
routes and with different cargoes.
NYK Line also is working on several additional
measures to safeguard container cargoes and otherwise improve
container transport. That work takes place through a subsidiary,
NYK Logistics Technology Institute. You can learn more about
the technologies at NYK Logistics Technology's Web site:
www.nyklti.co.jp. Or e-mail the company at
info_LTI@jp.nykline.com. |
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You won't find any drips on the
bottom of this container. |
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Mitsubishi
Motors, a traditional leader in sport-utility vehicles (SUVs),
has augmented its SUV lineup with an all-new model. It unveiled
the Airtrek in Tokyo on June 20.
The launch signifies a newly aggressive product
strategy by Mitsubishi Motors in cooperation with DaimlerChrysler.
Together, the companies are working to rekindle Mitsubishi
Motors' leadership in SUVs.
Mitsubishi Motors characterizes the Airtrek
as a next-generation crossover SUV. In other words, the
vehicle combines the rugged utility of an SUV with the comfort
and amenity of a luxury urban vehicle. And it incorporates
the latest technologies for maximizing safety and minimizing
environmental impact. |
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Mitsubishi Motors president and
CEO Takashi Sonobe introduces the Airtrek. |
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| The
automaker's chief operating officer, Rolf Eckrodt,
congratulates Sonobe on the launch. |
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| A new adapter
from Mitsubishi Plastics lets personal computers read and
write data from and to secure digital (SD) memory cards
and multimedia cards. Mitsubishi Plastics developed the
adapter with Altech Computer Systems, of Germany.
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| A U.S. investment
arm of Mitsubishi Corporation has invested in GlobalEnglish
Corporation, which provides English training over the Internet.
Mitsubishi Corporation will market GlobalEnglish's services
in Japan. It also will use those services for in-house training. |
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| Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi Trust Bank, along with Nippon
Trust Bank, set up a common holding company, Mitsubishi
Tokyo Financial Group, in April. Next, Nippon Trust Bank
and another trust banking subsidiary of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
will merge with Mitsubishi Trust Bank on October 1. |
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| Thirty-four
companies of the DC Card Group have deployed a state-of-the-art
host computer system. Their system handles credit verifications
from retailers, manages cardholder information, supports
external access, and monitors receivables. |
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