Peter MacLeod spoke with Tatsuya Akashi, President of Itoh Denki Europe, to listen to how his firm meets the excessive demand positioned on conveyors and rollers by the trendy warehouse.
The intralogistics sector has confronted its share of challenges lately, 2025 being no exception. Tatsuya Akashi, President of Itoh Denki Europe, described it as “a fairly powerful 12 months for the business. We had very sluggish market funding due to France had an issue with the federal government, and Germany was not doing so properly as a result of power points. General, it was a troublesome 12 months.”
Even the UK, he famous, had seen financial effectivity fall, with main Japanese firms relocating their European headquarters to the continent relatively than remaining in England. But amidst the difficulties, Jap Europe, significantly Poland, Czechia, and Hungary, had skilled a producing increase. “Poland and a number of the Jap Europe has boomed loads, form of turning into the centre of producing of Europe,” he informed me. Akashi highlighted that, regardless of these challenges, Itoh Denki Europe had skilled progress.
“Fortunately, we gained again various massive tasks, and we did above 10%… all the opposite surrounding firms mentioned ‘You’re so fortunate that you’ve got 10% progress!’ Trade was fairly dangerous.”
A significant focus for the corporate helps prospects enhance their profitability. Akashi defined: “To begin with, enhance the worth for cash for our merchandise. There are lots of very low-cost Chinese language manufacturers of motor rollers coming in. However once we take a look at sturdiness, and likewise how we’re growing our pace or torque or different specs, we’re promoting a a lot greater high quality product on the similar worth.” He added that the corporate’s modules, such because the Multi Angle Ball Sorter, had turn out to be a driving pressure in Europe. “As a substitute of spending large cash on a cross-belt sorter or slidechute sorter, they will make a quite simple sorter primarily based on our MABS module… the associated fee is round half or one-third of getting an enormous cross-belt sorter,” he mentioned. Upkeep is straightforward and fast, typically simply 5 minutes of downtime, which delivers clear advantages to each integrators and finish customers.
Competing with Low-cost Imports
Native presence and repair are equally vital in competing with cheaper imports. “Within the case of MDR or a slave curler, the associated fee itself is simply round €10 euro. When you purchase from China, perhaps it’s €7, however then when you have a scarcity and must carry it by air cargo, it prices €50. So with one thing very low-cost and heavy, you shouldn’t do it in China. It’s best to do it someplace near Europe,” Akashi defined. Fast supply, he mentioned, ensures that downtime is eradicated and operations stay easy. One instance he gave was a number one world e-tailer (sure, THAT one!) the place a less expensive answer would have induced practically two days of conveyor stoppage, equating to potential losses of round €2 million. “In the event that they had been utilizing ours, they might come again on in 10 minutes,” he mentioned.
Synthetic intelligence can be being built-in into Itoh Denki’s operations. “After we design some management software program these days, we partly use AI… once we need to do preventive upkeep or management the field transferring type… we may use AI to raised management our programme and make the programme sooner,” Akashi mentioned. Whereas AI is at the moment an enhancer of automation, he sees substantial future potential as extra finish customers shift from guide work to automated options.
Carbon Discount
Sustainability is one other precedence. Akashi harassed the corporate’s energy in enabling carbon discount, not solely by means of extra energy-efficient merchandise however by optimising operations. “In the event that they use our motorised curler, as a result of we do the run-on-demand, it means… solely three blocks are transferring out of 100. Because of this run-on-demand expertise, it can save you as much as 60% electrical energy… utilizing Itoh Denki product, which is the enabler of the ultimate carbon footprint. Right here we’re very robust satisfaction in our firm,” he mentioned.
Akashi (pictured, under) additionally mentioned the heritage of Japanese engineering. “One factor I can say is within the B2B space, particularly whether it is… frequent motor, there’s lots of okay-level low-cost Chinese language motors. However we’re making a devoted motor for this business, which is excessive torque however low pace… Japan is completely primary,” he mentioned.
Trying forward, the corporate continues to concentrate on innovation and buyer engagement. Its Amsterdam expertise centre permits northern European shoppers to check merchandise with their very own totes. Customisation is quick, with minor changes taking simply two weeks. Akashi additionally highlighted new developments to be showcased at LogiMAT, together with the versatile noise-arrest curler, which may carry smaller merchandise and cut back upkeep calls for.
Reflecting on success, Akashi summarised the corporate’s philosophy:
“We turn out to be smiling when our good expertise is adopted and contribute to society. It means a giant satisfaction of the tip person, our OEM companions, but additionally we will make our enterprise develop and sure degree of excessive profitability may be stored.”
