The TAKISAWA spirit

Smart, exquisite and exceptional mechanical engineering

International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) spoke to Taiwan TAKISAWA’s President, Winston Tai and his team. They revealed how the company acquired the Japanese value, which allowed them to excel on producing outstanding mechanics, while blending with the advantages of Taiwan’s local wisdom.

Set to celebrate its 50^th anniversary in a few years, Taiwan TAKISAWA has thrived across the globe with its unique technologies that represents Japan TAKISAWA’s 100 year-old ancient philosophy in craftsmanship. For almost five decades, Taiwan TAKISAWA has reinforced its presence in the APAC region, USA, Europe and South East Asia (SEA). Its annual revenue topped by US$1.1 billion; and is expected to particularly grow in the U.S. and SEA markets in the coming years.

A business that never cease to learn leaps into becoming the frontrunner in smart machining centers

When IMNA visited Taiwan TAKISAWA’s factory in Taoyuan, we know we have entered the hub of a serious machine tool manufacturing base. From its well-organized factory setting to a floor that shines, the company supplies a vast array of industries, which offers a solid foundation of high-quality cutting in the upper stream of metal cutting. Taiwan TAKISAWA is a good example to many manufacturers who aim for quality production.

In spite of its long standing reputation, President Winston Tai explained that they have remained humble and eager to learn ever since the founder established TAKISAWA, evoking partnership and achieving excellence. He encourages employees to be aware on the every beat of change in technology, as well as movements in the consumer applications industry. Simultaneously, as TAKISAWA’s brand grows older, it has a greater need to remain outward-facing.

“Every leader in the company must make sure that we are not growing overconfident, while becoming senior. TAKISAWA has been able to excel because of being modest and hardworking. It is with these principles that motivate us to examine the flaws of our lathes and create even-stronger solutions,” he said.

TAKISAWA’s leadership plays a critical role in moving the entire company ahead. They are able to pass the legacy through selecting professional leaders and not through family inheritance managerial systems. The company follows the ‘TAKISAWAN’ spirit, which boosts them with new innovations and humble existence that takes them gradually to the next century. As innovation engines TAKISAWA’s mechanical technology, the company also leaps in management – Taiwan TAKISAWA adopts intelligent production and management system to regulate and moderate production, quality control and delivery. No single details could mistakenly slip out from TAKISAWA’s connected smart factory.

The company is also devoted in charity works, and employees spend a considerable amount of effort and time on empowering vulnerable groups. With a number of thank you letters and certificates hung in the meeting room, the culture of being compassionate and grateful is emphasized in Taiwan TAKISAWA. 

TAKISAWA’s Smart factory and perseverance of hand-scraping irreplaceable

Taiwan TAKISAWA operates a unique TAKISAWA intelligent manufacturing execution system (TiMES) in their factory. The system is an independent development that coordinates the entire production progresses, as well as quality inspection. The system is the safety net for TAKISAWA in reaching high quality machine tools and services. The company has digitalized every process to maintain a transparent factory for each details to be traced and optimized, including the storage in the factory, the progresses on orders, and eventually solve the issue of long preparing time before manufacturing. Through the TAKISAWA intelligent manufacturing execution system, the company has greater connection inside the factory with their employees, and simultaneously, a visualized production control to meet differing international clients’ demands. It is accessed across Taiwan TAKISAWA’s global factories and branches.

Apart from aiming for the most edge-cutting intelligent factory, Taiwan TAKISAWA also holds tight to its route: the art of handcrafting – implementing hand scraping surfaces on every machine tool. President Tai told us that hand scraping is a work process that TAKISAWA has persisted on for almost one century. Several senior hand scrapers concentrated fully with professional body movements to achieve the art of hand scraping surfaces. The female handscraper whom we met at TAKISAWA’s factory explained that “hand scraping provides an oil-retaining texture to mated surfaces within a machine”. This manual process advocates greater accuracy and rigidity of the machine tool.

Integrated and sustainable technology inspires end-users in flourishing industries

Taiwan TAKISAWA has strong applications in a broad range of sectors, the critical technology advancements in TAKISAWA’s upgraded multi-tasking centers and high rigidity vertical machining centers have expressed the potential to spark greater mechanical breakthroughs in the downstream of sectors, such as electric vehicles, automobiles, medical orthopedic device manufacturing, and precision aerospace  components. The CNC lathes’ cutting capacity is particularly popular among clients in the electric vehicle sector due to the highly integrated features of TAKISAWA’s machine.

“In our lab, we keep experimenting the possibility to integrate as much machining power and speed possible into one single CNC lathe. We embodied our multi-tasking centers with accurate machining, such as milling, drilling and high quality turning”, stated Tai.

Taiwan TAKISAWA examined the demands of modern manufacturing as the tough issue they must deal when verifying workpieces and differing industries in the factory floor. This concern stems from the speedy development of IoT and digitalization in traditional manufacturing sector.

“The aspect of being able to interact with our clients, and the connectivity to the application industries have been encouraged by Industry 4.0, naturally Taiwan TAKISAWA must respond and design versatile equipment that empowers our users to be able to take production contracts from all-sorts of industries”, Tai remarked. The major application fields of Taiwan TAKISAWA’s clients are in automotive mold-die manufacturing, gear box and key component manufacturing. Several top-tier sports and commercial vehicles, and high-profile electric vehicle companies are long term collaborators with Taiwan TAKISAWA.

President Tai believes that multi-tasking and multi-axis CNC lathes will become the next star equipment in the metalworking industry. Over the decades, TAKISAWA has already accumulated a strong backbone in the technology of multi-tasking centers. They are now ready to occupy global clients’ shop floor and work practically in every factory that aims for sustainable production. The equipment: LX-2500ML7 and EX-2000YSL5 have increased the speed of machining by reducing up to 50% time needed in axis movement, strengthened the structural design and increased the user friendliness by enlarging the machining ranges of the multi-tasking machines.

TAKISAWA leads the future with edge-cutting techniques with modular, smart designs

Asking about the future for Taiwan TAKISAWA’s development, President Tai stressed that the future of TAKISAWA’s mechanical focus would be in “modular designs” of machine tools. He remarked that this design would allow greater flexibility for machine tools to be involved in more innovative applications. On the other hand, machine tool users would be able to upgrade machine tools without extra stress. The design would also make machining of complex shape workpieces more easy.

Responding to this potential trend, TAKISAWA has already be prepared to generate stronger and more sustainable, but easy to operate solutions, and modular mechanical designs to lead this trend. In the coming year, Taiwan TAKISAWA will be active in the South East Asia and the U.S. regions, as they expect to see a surge in automation and cost-effective CNC lathes needs for re-structuring global manufacturing bases, due to volatile geopolitical climates.

Having inherited the Japanese industrial art DNA, Taiwan TAKISAWA integrates Taiwan innovation in their CNC lathes. They create an even stronger multi-purpose CNCs and vertical CNCs that top the demands from industrial countries, like Japan and Germany. In an era of Industry 4.0, the company’s manufacturing equipment will keep upgrading and optimizing to intelligent platform. The intelligent platform aims to analyze production, improve the database for big data manufacturing, incorporate industrialization and digitalization, and finally generate new markets. TAKISAWA would soon become the total solution provider and CNC machining expert. Exceeding the merits of their Japanese upbringing, the ‘TAKISAWA’ spirit can now be seen across crucial global manufacturing centers. It is a spirit that creates, innovates, reflects and reaches brilliance.