GK sat down with Makoto Nakanishi, President of Toyox Co., Ltd., to explore the future of its global service strategy and innovations in hose technology.
What does the future look like for your ‘Hose Doctor’ business? With 12,000 visits, are you looking to expand this part of your business?
Yes, we call it the ‘Global Needs Strategy’, and if a country is having the same issue, request or problem, we are able to adapt to this. It depends on how well-developed that country is and the difference in the progress of the industry. Since everyone is having the same problems and requests, we can actually create a template solution for all countries. It’s a niche market, but we are aiming to develop the overseas market in this area.
As a company that produces hoses used in a variety of different settings, which industry is currently your biggest customer, and which are you looking to strengthen in the future?
Our biggest customer is automobile, which is the largest industry in Japan. Regarding our project with Toyota, they had an issue with the dislocation of the hose and the leakage of the hose. Since the hose needs to be screwed on, it depends on whether the engineer is a male or female and how the person sets up the hose. This affects whether there is a dislocation or a leakage of the hose. So we build our products specifically so that if you screw on the product till the end, it will never dislocate and it will never leak. This means the product is safe. There have been incidents in Toyota where the hose got dislocated and caused burns, which is a safety issue. This is not a concern when it comes to our product. This can help to reduce energy use and cost, so Toyota announced our product as a part of their environmental solving activities.
How did you develop this technology?
One characteristic of this technology is the connector and another is the technology of how to strengthen the inside of the hose. These are some of our unique technologies. It is a mixture of materials that can withstand high temperatures and be oil resistant, whilst also being chemical-resistant. We create this via a multilayer formula, which is rather unique. With these technologies, most of the client issues can be solved.
What does the future look like for Toyox, and what is your company’s 3-5 year midterm strategy?
We started as a basic hose manufacturer. At that time, the most active industries in Japan were civil engineering and construction and we were very active in that area, providing products in those industries. Followed by that, the electrical appliances industry in Japan was quite popular. During that time we provided a huge amount of products to those electrical appliance manufacturers. Now, we have more collaborations with the manufacturing side of industries such as pharmaceutical, medical, and semiconductor because that is the area we will probably grow rapidly in from now onwards. We are following the history of Japan’s economic development and we will do the same in the future as well. Now working with pharmaceutical, medical, and semiconductor industries we are involved in solving their issues and creating more efficient and advanced manufacturing systems. We are also trying to export horizontally to overseas manufacturers.
