China growth: NEMA in Standards, Omron in Design, Manufacturing

In separate news, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and Omron recently announced growth in China. NEMA plans a series of training and cooperation seminars for government officials, while Omron started operations at its global design/production center for control devices in Shanghai. Manufacturing automation there includes mixed-model assembly lines.

NEMA plans to organize a series of U.S.-led training and cooperation seminars for Chinese industry and government officials. NEMA will set up the workshops and provide on-site organization for the three-year, multi-sector series of programs. The initiative, known as the U.S.-China Standards and Conformity Assessment Cooperation Program, is sponsored by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), which will provide matching funding for about 25 events over three years. The award will be administered as a grant to the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham), which is retaining NEMA as a contractor and providing in-country oversight.

In 2004, NEMA opened a fully registered Chinese representative office in Beijing. Since then, the association has sponsored a number of electrical equipment industry events in China on such issues as energy efficiency, protection of intellectual property rights, hazardous substance regulation, and technical product standards.

NEMA has headquarters in Rosslyn, VA, and other offices in Sao Paulo, and Mexico City. NEMA, founded in 1926, says U.S. production of electrical products sold worldwide exceeds $120 billion.

Omron global design/production center for control devices marked the start of operations in Shanghai, China, with a ceremony on June 6. The resulting subsidiary, Omron (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (abbreviation: OMS), will serve as the global design and production center for Omron's control components and systems equipment, the company says.

The OMS subsidiary was established in July 2005 by merging three Omron Group companies in Shanghai: Shanghai Omron Automation System Co. Ltd. (OMP), established in 1993; Omron (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (OMC), established in 1994; and Omron (Shanghai) Control System Engineering Co. Ltd. (OMH), established in 2003. OMS aims to supply reliable, high-performance control components and systems equipment from Shanghai to manufacturing sites globally and contribute to the development of manufacturing in China. Work includes design, development, production, and supply of basic control components and systems equipment, such as sensors, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), temperature controllers, and other controllers.

Omron Corp.'s Industrial Automation Co. (IAB) plans to invest 5 billion yen in OMS over the three years leading up to fiscal 2007. (As part of the strategy, another 5 billion yen will be invested in Japan, for a total of 10 billion yen combining Japan and China.) IAB says it expects an operating margin of 20% by fiscal 2007.

Automation employed includes "cutting-edge printed circuit board inspection systems and high-reliability component mounting/packaging technology, which allow product quality data to be gathered and analyzed in real-time to eliminate defective products," company says. Omron expects higher efficiencies through "mixed-model assembly lines divided according to production process, rather than model-specific dedicated lines. The deployment of a wireless LAN system ensures the freedom for the production line layout to effectively accommodate fluctuations in workload. This results in flexible and reliable varied-quantity production of various models." OMS offers next-day shipment capability through a global supply chain management (SCM) system. Other features include a call center, mechatronics service center, training center, repair center, and "Solution Plaza Shanghai," with approximately 60 working Omron product prototypes on display. Staffing of 2,200 and production volume of approximately 36 billion yen are expected in FY2007, up from 1,800 and 20 billion yen in FY06.

Source: Control Engineering US