Shibaura Machine:
The origin of manufacturing Story 5
Let’s combine our strengths again.
In March 1949, Shibaura Machine Works became independent
from its parent organization, Numazu Plant.
That April, Shibaura Machine Company split from its parent organization,
Tsurumi Plant, and became an independent company. Shibaura separating along plant lines
and taking different paths is part of our history.
We met changing market needs by leveraging the special expertise of each plant to expand our business.
Four of our six main businesses today already existed in the 1950s.
The Shibaura group was involved in a wide range of businesses as a whole,
but existed as separate companies.
They were sister companies sharing the Shibaura name,
but it seems they were not effectively sharing information as they should have.
The wall of separation was even too much for Kametaro Fujishima,
one of our founding members
and the man who led the Hobbing Machine Committee
with dedicated leadership, to overcome.
At one point he served as president of both companies
and brought the two closer together in pursuit of business synergies,
but this did not result in a merger and he resigned as president.
It would be another six years before
the two companies would again finally become one.
The strengths which were once again combined under the Shibaura name are still alive and well today.
Thinking back over this long journey which brought us to where we are now reinforces the sense of mission
we feel to build on our strengths and expertise and deliver them to the world.
We not only seek to achieve the highest possible returns in each of our businesses,
but also to harness synergies transcending our businesses to maximize client value.
We think of this as bringing together the Shibaura spirit of manufacturing which resides in each of us.
With the spirit of elite manufacturing embodied in the name “Shibaura”,
our story of success and growth will continue.
