Mr Tomohisa Yamazaki, president of Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, last week, 24 November, presided over the official opening ceremony for Mazak's state-of-the-art European Technology Centre located at the company's European headquarters in Worcester, England.
 "The investment in the European Technology Centre has significantly improved the support we can give to our European customers, allowing us to demonstrate the widest range of new Mazak machine tools and technology," said David Jack, group managing director, Europe.
Mr Yamazaki said that the Worcester facility – which incorporates a solutions area, highlighting parts manufactured by Mazak technology; an auditorium; a spacious hall, featuring many machine tools under power; plus the corporation's European manufacturing facility – is unique within Europe.
"We consider this factory as not only the most up to date, but also the most complete machine tool manufacturing plant in Europe. We do not just assemble machine tools; we machine castings, we make spindles, turrets, tables, magazines and even sheet metal covers. We have over 2,000 visitors to this plant every year, half from outside the UK. This technology centre will mean they can see a more complete range of our products."
Addressing what was surely the most common question on everybody's lips, he said that, on the face of it, it may seem strange to be investing in a facility like this at this time in the economic cycle. "Certainly, there has been a dramatic change in the machine tool business in the last year. From October 2008, order intake for the Japanese machine tool industry fell by 75-80 per cent, and Mazak has not been immune from that." There are signs of recovery in China, Asia and the USA, while in Europe it is a patchy picture, he added.
Such cycles are common in the machine tool business, Mr Yamazaki observed, adding that the company has been in business for 90 years and had faced such situations before. "Having the strength to manage the downturns has always been a key part of our strategy. Even during this recession, we are still investing in new facilities, improving existing products and developing new ones."
The company resources all this from its own funds, he emphasised, and said that the forthcoming year would see more than 50 new product developments, which will be demonstrated at facilities such as the new Technology Centre.
Picture - left to right – Dr David Jack, Yamazaki Mazak group managing director, Europe; the Mayor of Worcester, councillor Andy Roberts; Tomohisa Yamazaki, president Yamazaki Mazak Corporation; Sir David McMurtry, chairman and chief executive, Renishaw plc and Mazak customer; Valentin Knott, managing director, Knott GmbH and Mazak customer
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