Nikon 2006 Annual Report Download - page 19

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Performance Summary
Sales in the bioscience business grew on the back of
strong sales particularly of microscopes incorporating
Nikon’s distinctive features, including the new spectral
imaging confocal microscope C1Si and the Perfect Focus
System. Sales in the industrial instruments business
exceeded levels posted in the prior year. Nikon expanded
sales of the NEXIV series of CNC video measuring sys-
tems with the introduction of the Confocal NEXIV VMR-
K3040ZC, and also enjoyed brisk sales of AMI series of
automatic macro inspection systems, which contributes
greatly to the miniaturization of IC patterns. Overall seg-
ment sales expanded 5.2% year-on-year to ¥54,875 mil-
lion, while operating income surged 44.6% to ¥4,085
million on account of successful cost-cutting measures.
Positive effects of organizational
reforms
In June 2005, Nikon conducted major organizational
reforms in the Instruments Company. The new system
eliminates previous functional divisions separating sales,
design and production teams, replacing them with a
more market-oriented structure. The revised organiza-
tional structure divides the Instruments Company broadly
into biosciences and industrial instruments. These reforms
have resulted in faster decision-making and a major
change in employee awareness in that attitudes and
behavior are now more customer-focused. Product devel-
opment speed has also been greatly improved.
Shift to delivering solutions with
biological microscopes
The bioscience market is forecast to continue growing
over the long-term. The observation of live cells is one
area of particular interest, especially with its links to
regenerative medicine and bio drug discovery. Although
the overall microscope market expanded minimally
during the period, Nikon recorded 11% growth. This
achievement was due to more than just robust sales
of microscopes, it refl ected efforts to provide solutions
by way of systemization. Moving forward, Nikon will
strengthen its sales and marketing capabilities by provid-
ing consulting to university professors and researchers
through application engineers with highly specialized
knowledge. Personnel with expert technical knowledge
have been promoting sales in this manner in Europe
already with highly successful results. Nikon plans to
recruit more young sales reps in tune with the digital era
to satisfy the demand for systemization.
biological microscopes,
industrial microscopes,
measuring instruments,
inspection equipment
17