Page 48 - MYM 2016

Case Study: YKK Japan
enriched, comfortable, healthy lives. We have to direct our attention to making, and supplying, lots of standard ordinary zippers. Clothing is a necessity of life, and we should motivate ourselves with the thought that we cannot stand it if there are clothes that are not provided with YKK zippers. For exam- ple, we need to make zippers that would be used
on ordinary clothing bought for a child in Indo- nesia. Standard goods today are nothing like the cheap goods we saw in the past. In places where the population is rising, rather than providing people with cheap and shoddy zippers, we want to provide inexpensive but good zippers. In a typical piece of clothing, a zipper might account for only two to three percent of the cost. However, that clothing becomes unwearable if the zipper fails. Yes, we can be proud of meeting the needs of prominent luxury brands, but as a manufacturer of zippers, we should be ashamed if we cannot provide standard zippers to markets in China and other parts of Asia. It is easy to see how engineers take great pride in making higher quality items, but I would like to inspire them by telling them “it takes technology to create good products at lower cost too.” If we can do this, based on the idea of providing good quality zippers to everyone, we can continue to meet the manufac- turing challenge to achieve a happier world.
challenge for the architectural Products business: Make Windows for healthy Spaces
e other core business of the YKK Group is architectural products, which are provided by YKK AP. e AP business makes a variety of products. It aims to deliver advanced comfort to everyday life and urban spaces by creating windows and doors that enable the design of comfortable resi- dential space, and facades and other elements for commercial buildings to enable attractive urban surroundings.
Windows are among the architectural products made by YKK AP. Windows are just a single ele- ment in any structure, but they have a tremendous in uence on building design potential and per- formance. Windows have an especially large e ect on the transfer of heat in and out of buildings, and
as such, they have an important role to play in the energy e ciency of living spaces. For a while now in Japan, a great deal of emphasis has been given to the energy e ciency of residences. It has been proven possible to obtain excellent thermal insulation and anti-condensation performance by using vinyl windows made using high performance glass with frames made of plastic, which provides 1000 times better thermal insulation than aluminum. ese windows greatly reduce heat transfer through the window and can thus signi cantly reduce heating and cooling energy consumption.
To expand the window business, we have been moving from ”energy-conservation” and proposing new ”low-energy” solutions; that is, we have been emphasizing how we can live comfortably with
low energy consumption. Around the concept of “low-energy lifestyle,” we have emphasized the high thermal insulation performance of our windows. Living spaces include windows and their periph- eral items, and it is here where light, air, heat, and water can be controlled over the four seasons to enable users to live comfortably while consuming extremely little energy.
Moreover, the health risks posed by summer heat and winter cold have recently been seen as problematic in Japan. Since windows are the main conduits of heat in and out of residential space, YKK AP has been proposing a solution to seasonal health problems with windows that, due to superior insula- tion properties, can reduce the need for heating and cooling use and still ensure a healthy and comfort- able daily life. Windows also play an important role in moderating heat and cold in residential space and can contribute to maintaining a healthy room tem- perature for the residents. Consequently, for both health and the environment, windows have become increasingly important for making housing with superior insulation.
Aiming to gain the “low energy” advantage of vinyl windows, this company has introduced new products with environmental performance superior to previous products. We launched the high-perfor- mance vinyl windows APW330 and APW430 Series to help provide a healthy, low-energy lifestyle. Sub- sequently, for developing and promoting acceptance of these products, in the 25th Global Environment
48 | MINd YOUr MarkETING OCTOBEr 2016