Epson Singapore shares strategies to boost B2B focus

Usui introduces the four key product areas for Epson as part of its Epson 25 goals.

Epson Singapore is strengthening its B2B offerings as part of its commitment to enterprise and corporate customers. The company expects good results in Southeast Asia, where it saw business growth of 11.3% CAGR from FY15 to FY17.

The news was shared at Epson Singapore's 35th anniversary celebrations in Singapore at the end of October. A product showcase at the event unveiled the Moverio smart glasses BT-350 and BT-2200 in Southeast Asia, alongside other key products including mechanical watches, the T3 industrial robot, a digital textile printer and other innovation highlights.  

Usui (left) and Tanaka (right) at a media Q&A.

Epson said it will continue to draw on its manufacturing expertise to innovate in its key areas of inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics for the enterprise and business segments, which currently constitute as much as two thirds of its overall business. 

“Epson takes a unique approach to innovation and business, and is backed by a long history of artisanship and attention to the details. We are moving to expand our focus and deepen our efforts to serve the high growth potential markets in a range of business segments. We aim to continue to bring innovations to our business customers that will deliver on precision and performance, and to push the boundaries of imagination and possibility,” said Tanaka Toshimitsu, MD, Southeast Asia, Epson Singapore. 

Penetrating the rental and staging markets further

Epson is the top projector brand in Southeast Asia with 37.3% market share as of FYQ117 according to Futuresource. Through expanding its high-brightness laser projector lineup, Epson aims to meet the needs of the different business segments across corporate, government and education sectors. The company is eyeing the rental and staging industry as a new focus, and has introduced a special starter package for them.

Usui also talked about disrupting the projector market by projecting content not only onto flat surfaces as is traditional, but onto 3D surfaces like buildings. "With technical advances, light sources, and projection technology we really want to change the world around you," he said.

Source: Epson Singapore. Siew (left) and Ando (right).

Munenori Ando, Executive Officer and General Administrative Manager, Sales & Marketing Division, Seiko Epson, noted that the market is growing for rental and staging while Epson has the technology for

producing brilliant image quality on huge screens with a compact machine. "We bring that sort of value to the market," he said.

Siew Jin Kiat, Regional GM (SE Asia), Printers, Visual & Wearable Products Division, Epson Singapore, said the the next three years will see more high brightness projects being used outdoors, such as for mapping images onto buildings. "That's going to carry on," he predicted. "(Projectors) are going to be brighter, smaller."

Visual innovation is the name of the game for Epson when it comes to projectors and smart eyewear.

Taking on augmented reality (AR) in commercial and industrial environments

Epson’s new Moverio smart glasses made their Southeast Asia debut in Singapore. Two models, the Moverio BT-350 and Moverio Pro BT-2200 provide an enhanced augmented reality (AR) experience with durability and flexibility as the key focus. The smart glasses are also more compact and meant to remain comfortable when worn for long periods, and do not replace the models BT-300 and BT-2000. 

Source: Epson Singapore. The Moverio BT-350 can be used for entertainment venues.

The Moverio BT-350 is designed for a busy commercial environment suited for sharing with multiple users with the world’s first multi-unit docking station for easy fleet management, such as at tourist attractions. The Moverio Pro BT-2200 smart headset is suited for industrial and other enterprise AR applications such as for remote technical assistance. It features a hinge specifically designed to fit over front-brim helmets. 

While AR is not widely adopted yet, Epson expects a tipping point to occur in the next three to five years, especially in the industrial and B2B space. "We believe it's a matter of time. The space will open up," said Siew.

Ando talks about how the Moverio is used at SO Sofitel in Singapore to provide guests with augmented reality experiences at specific parts of the hotel. Ando also introduced a pan-Asia B2B brand campaign called It's in the Details. "What drives us at Epson is attention to details," he explained. "Details are what turns ideas, dreams and the future into reality. Innovation always works better when you control details.” 

He said that the heart of the concept is "verticality", building every product from scratch, from the smallest component. "And if the necessary technology doesn't exist, Epson simply makes it," he said. "It is taking care of every single detail from product development to manufacturing and sales and marketing, right down to service and support to customers. It means listening very closely to customers. Their feedback informs our (strategy) and translates into big details for our customer business."

Replacing lasers with inkjets

Through its Micro Piezo inkjet print head technology, Epson aims to replace laser printers in all office segments with inkjets. Epson is currently one of the leaders of the inkjet printer market, with 32% share in Southeast Asia.

Ando notes that inkjet printers are much simpler to maintain than laser printers.

The recently-launched WorkForce Enterprise series, the WF-C20590, brought high-speed, high-productivity printers that deliver quality inkjet printing to enterprises, while delivering lower total cost of ownership, Epson said. Built with Epson’s PrecisionCore linehead technology, the printers print at breakthrough printing speeds of up to 100 pages per minute (ppm), one of the fastest speeds in inkjet printing, while rivalling laser printers in quality, durability, serviceability and cost.

"2017 will be the tipping point. (Inkjets) will eventually overtake laser technology," Ando predicted.

Ando discusses a print technology shift from lasers to high-capacity ink tank printers in Southeast Asia. He said 20 million ink tank printers have been sold worldwide in the past six to seven years, with Southeast Asia being a major contributor to the numbers. "We are performing very well in the SMB segment," he said, noting that while competitors have begun to copy Epson, the brand has successfully defended its market share and continues to be No. 1 for customers in the region.

Siew said that the 100 ppm speed is one of the drivers for shifting the standard for enterprise printers from lasers to inkjets. The speed is a significant improvement over the 50-70 ppm speeds that are common with laser printers today, Epson said. "Now the challenge is how to make paper dry faster so print speeds are higher," he said.

The PrecisionCore linehead printhead found in the Epson WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590 printer. Printing speeds in duplex mode are the same as for single-sheet mode: 100ppm, although others' printers typically have a lower speed for duplex printing, Epson said. Watch the Instavideo of the duplex test taking place.

Ink tanks for the WorkForce Enterprise WF-C20590 are placed at the top and in front for convenient access. Press one of the tanks in gently, and it will pop out immediately for easy replacement.

Asked about 3D printing, Minoru Usui, President, Seiko Epson, said that there are still technical challenges that need to be ironed out, from limitations in the range of materials available to accuracy and productivity. One major problem is enabling Epson's print heads to handle the material used for 3D printing, he said. "More R&D needs to take place in terms of materials management," he said.

Digital professional printing

In professional printing, Epson will continue to drive the shift from analogue to digital textile printing for large format printers to meet the growing demand. In the digital textile printing industry, Smithers Pira forecasts 17.5% annual growth for digital textile print, with a revenue growth forecast at an annual average of 12.3% for 2016 to 2021.

This Epson SureColor F2000 Series printer can print images directly on garments. It takes 27 seconds to print a 1,440 x 1,440 pixel tee, and cleans itself automatically. The printer will print on fabrics with a certain percentage of cotton content; garments must be heat pressed thereafter to 'set' the ink. Watch the Instavideo of a tee shirt being printed.

Epson continues to drive innovation in the commercial and industrial printer markets for photo graphics, signage, textile and label printing amongst printing providers, retail stores and the like, and is expanding throughout the Southeast Asia region.

Industrial robots to complement humans

Epson's T3 SCARA robot.

Epson's world is one where robots live and work together with humans. The recent launch of the new T3 series robots has expanded Epson’s lineup of SCARA* robots and offers a low total cost of ownership with 30% less power usage than conventional SCARA robots. Epson is a global leader in high-precision SCARA robots which are deployed in the manufacturing industry for a wide variety of applications. 

The compact entry-level model is ideal for pick-and-place applications such as assembly, inspection and feeding tasks. It comes with the option to integrate with Epson’s Vision Systems so that the robot can ‘see’. 

Going forward, Epson envisions developing robots to see, sense, think and work like humans, and working alongside and supporting humans in a variety of situations. Ando predicted that robots will take over low-value jobs, leaving humans to pursue their aspirations. "The important thing here is the ease of use and overall performance," he said.

He shared a case study from Indonesia where an electronics manufacturer spent US$350,000 on four Epson robots for manufacturing. The company is now more productive, producing 144,000 diodes a day instead of 96,000 diodes daily. The employees who used to do the work have been redeployed to higher-value tasks, Ando said.

"(Mass-production) can be achieved with productivity and speed. These are the areas which require robots," he said. "The word is 'complement' not 'replacement'. We have a shrinking population, so less of a workforce. Someone has to do the job. If it is not humans it has to be robots."

Source: Epson Singapore. Ng (left) and Hamaguchi (right).

Ng Ngee Khiang, Regional GM (SE Asia), Robotics & Professional Solutions, Epson Singapore, predicted that the Internet of Things would be particularly significant for robotics, as connected sensors can be built into the robot. "Singapore is moving towards the smart factory. A robot will be able to sense that it requires maintenance," he said. "The robot is self-sustaining as far as maintenance is concerned. There is less need for human intervention. It will ultimately drive down the cost not just in terms of labour but also in preventive maintenance."

Orient watches.

The Orient watch vision

Epson announced the restructure of its Orient Watch subsidiary in September 2016. At that time, Epson said in a statement that combining with Orient Watch with its long heritage in mechanical watches, its strengths of developing, planning and designing movements, and its sales and service networks, will help bolster its watch brands. 

"By doing this, Epson hopes to accelerate the creation of wearable products that will provide indispensable and unique value to its customers," the company said.

The Orient brand of mechanical watches is part of the Epson series of wearable products, reiterated Tanaka. "Looking inside an Orient watch summarises everything about Epson – efficiency, precision, compactness – what we're working to get better over time," he said. "Our specialisation is on the artisanship that goes into making the watch. What we want to do with Orient is to provide that artisanship at a very reasonable price point."

Tanaka added that Epson is working on sensor-equipped watches for various purposes. It has GPS sports activity watches on sale in Japan, for example.

Usui commented that Epson has a responsibility towards sustainability. "People don't want a paperless world. As a manufacturer our responsibility is to do what we can to reduce the cost and address the environmental issues," he said. "Everybody is worried about (the sustainability of) paper – that's why we have created the PaperLab system to recycle it." PaperLab is an on-premise solution that does not need water to recycle paper.

Usui said that in the area of partnerships, Epson is looking for systems integrators in various verticals, as well as software developers, particularly for printing and office systems applications. "Document management is a significant area in printing," he said via an interpreter.

"Where necessary we will combine with other providers to augment our hardware. Open innovation is the key for us," he said.

Epson markets and supports printers, scanners, projectors, electronic devices including liquid crystal displays, semiconductors and system devices in Southeast and South Asia. Epson's Singapore operation is also the regional headquarters for Seiko Epson Corporation.

Explore:

Watch the Instavideo of the T3 robot showing off its dexterity in a "pick and place" application. Some of the blue tiles have markings on the other side, and others do not. The robot can shuffle the tiles, pick tiles chosen by a human, and have the tiles scanned by a lens (the round object on the left of the case) to determine a score for the human - higher for marked tiles, lower for those without marks.

Watch the video introducing Epson's PaperLab technology

*SCARA is an acronym in robotics that stands for selective compliance assembly robot arm. 'Assembly' is sometimes replaced by 'articulated'.