Page 33 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2019

September-October 2019
www.packagingnews.com.au COVER STORY
SMC CORPORATION
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OEMs are looking for more than a supplier partner in SMC – they want a company that can offer solutions.”
FAMILY FOCUS
“SMC is at heart a family business, and this is something that is impor- tant to Mr Takada, even now sixty years on, as an $8bn company with close on 20,000 employees,” Driver says. “What’s also refreshing is that Mr Takada believes to be successful in overseas operations you need to have local management running the show. Of course, all subsidiaries have access to support on all levels from the Japanese company, but we are responsible for our own deci- sions in the business,” Driver says.
For Driver, the most important de- cisions revolve around people. “It may sound like a cliché, but our peo- ple really are our most important as- set,” he says. “Surround yourself with the right people in the right positions, whose focus and intent are aligned with the company’s values – trust, re- spect and personal accountability – and the rest all falls into place.
“Of course, for success as a busi- ness you need to have great products and a supportive infrastructure, which our organisation has built up on a global scale,” Driver adds. “But it still comes down to people, and the successes we have achieved to date are due in large part to our ability to retain knowledge in the business and then also to bring in ‘new blood’.”
In the pursuit of surrounding himself with the right people, who will take the business in directions it needs to go in this age of increased automation and digitalisation, Driver relates that he has recently restructured the executive team, creating a flatter structure and cre- ating opportunities to develop lead- ership talent across all divisions.
CUSTOMER CARE
Asked what he believes are SMC customers’ main challenges, Driver says that original equipment manu- facturers (OEMs), and in turn their
MAIN: The Castle Hill headquarters occupies 80,000 square meters of land in Sydney.
LEFT: Man at the helm, SMC ANZ MD Wayne Driver.
BOTTOM: Thirty per cent of all SMC products sold in ANZ are locally manufactured.
OPPOSITE: The SMC Australia team celebrated the company’s 60th birthday ‘Kanreki-style’ at Foodtech Qld earlier this year.
maintaining a strong sales team in the field and on the phones is most important. SMC has over 80 sales- people across ANZ, which means OEMs and end users enjoy a quick response time from SMC.
“Our design engineers work hand in glove with the sales team to engi- neer and supply customer solutions that meet their requirements as fast as possible,” he says.
“We’re not just a supplier after all, we’re a manufacturer ourselves. We can empathise with all the challenges our customers face, like the vagaries of currency and labour shortages,” he says, noting that 30 per cent of SMC product supplied in the region is made locally and 70 per cent is brought in from Japan, with costs im- pacted by exchange rate fluctuations.
Underpinning all the efforts in sales and engineering, though, is the focus on innovation across the entire company.
“It’s simple, really: our survival depends on our customers’ survival. We are compelled to help them be competitive by continually invest- ing in improving our own process- es, technology and customer service and technical support,” Driver says.
It’s this holistic approach that has built the company’s reputation and track record for success over the last 60 years. There’s little chance it will change tack now. ■
SMC BY THE NUMBERS
■ Turnover: 576.9 Billion Yen (AU$8bn)
■ Employees: 19,746
■ Sales offices: 500 in 83
countries worldwide
■ Sales force: 7950+
■ Product line: 12,000 basic models with over 700,000 variants
■ Engineering staff: 1450+ located in technical centres in Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and China.
■ Manufacturing facilities in 30 countries
manufacturer or end-user custom- ers, are fighting to stay competitive. “Australia is a high labour cost country, but our advantage is the quality and innovation OEMs are able to build into their machines. When they’re looking at ways to re- duce costs to be competitive, energy is a key target,” Driver says.
“OEMs are looking for more than a supplier partner in SMC – they want a company that can offer solu- tions,” he says.
In the energy space, for example, SMC has developed a full suite of solutions to give customers a com- mercial approach to energy saving.
Driver says that while many com- panies are moving towards online portals for customer service, and SMC is developing one locally too,