Page 47 - MYM 2016

a speci c sales gure, in this case ten billion, in a medium-term plan. Such targeting was an indica- tion that we recognized the gravity of addressing
a rapidly expanding market, but it also meant the strengthening of our system for supplying ordinary zippers to markets including China and other parts of Asia. e underlying purpose remains “to provide good quality zippers to everyone.” ere would be limits to what we could achieve to that end were
we to carry on along established lines of business expansion, and that is why we are taking on a new type of challenge. Here are some details of our activities.
One of the aims of the ird Medium-Term Management Plan (FY 2009 – FY 2012) for the Fastening Products business was to develop more speci c strategies for di erent customer segments. We recognized four categories of customers, which are Hi-Fashion, Hi-Function, Variation, and Price Conscious, and attempted to improve our com- petitiveness with appropriate accommodations for each segment. For the current management plan,
to implement strategic planning with awareness of di erent business formats of customers, these four segments were further divided to achieve a sophisti- cated approach to each segment and sub-segment.
Speci cally, Price Conscious was subdivided into three categories: Standard, Economy, and Low. Hi-Fashion customers include European luxury fashion brands, and Hi-Function customers include sports apparel makers and users in non-apparel industrial applications. In these segments, YKK sought additional technological improvements. Meanwhile, in the areas where YKK had not excelled up until now, which included Variation, particularly the products for fast fashion, and Price Conscious, in which customers demand competitive cost, we faced the challenge of changing awareness and attitudes in the company, particularly of our engineers. e range from Variation to “Econ-
omy” of Price Conscious is understood to be a high-volume sector, and the segments here are the ones in which we lacked competitiveness. To put it another way, it is a zone where there is potential for improvements in areas that have been neglected. For fast fashion and other customers of the Variation category, emphasis is being given to three things:
fig. 2: the customer segmentation of Ykk’s fastening products business
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boosting our overall ability to make proposition on zipper and snap-button products, strengthening overseas R&D, and shortening the delivery time
of our product lines. Meanwhile, for Price Con- scious customers, it has been decided to press on with fundamentals, such as the development and introduction of new products, capital investment and development/introduction of product lines to improve competitiveness, and total cost reduction. In addition, we have been strengthening supply capacity through aggressive investment in regional growth markets.
While such enhancements to the Fastening Products business have been made to increase
our ability to respond to expanding markets, the underlying intention is to ful ll YKK’s prime objec- tive: to provide good-quality zippers to everyone. Rather than focusing on expensive items, we seek to provide goods that enable ordinary people to lead
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