Nikon 2016 Annual Report Download - page 31

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FPD scanner FX-68S FPD scanner FX-101S
Q Please tell us about your development policies in the years ahead.
For our business unit to generate prot in mature markets, we will need to control any increases in xed costs and
“invest in developments that generate steady prot.” This does not mean giving technicians free rein to do as they
wish; the main point of such developments will be to assign work into features that customers really need. We will
examine investments using the policy not of aiming for “the world’s most advanced” but rather of making “things we
can sell.” It does, however, take a great deal of effort to search for things we can sell. We have therefore established
a Solutions Development Department and enhanced the function that picks out customer needs. Also in charge of
specication negotiations, the new department will thus bring together both customer needs relating to the system
under negotiation and opinions with regard to the systems being operated in the eld. Sorting and analyzing the
information that we collect as well as looking into how that information can be incorporated into solutions for existing
systems, deciding when would be a good time to supply those solutions, or whether it would be better to delete or
add functions to the next system development, I am expecting us to be able to make judgments on all these aspects
from a customer’s viewpoint.
Q Please tell us about your strategies for the scal year ending March 31, 2017, and
over the medium to long term.
As we plan to sell 90 units in the current scal year, an increase of 39 units over the number sold in the scal year
ended March 31, 2016, our primary issue is gearing up for the increase in production. Currently, new production
plants are being built at both Tochigi Nikon Precision and Miyagi Nikon Precision. To be able to deliver systems to
customers as promised, we will inaugurate these new facilities as planned. I am also considering taking the opportu-
nity to replace facilities that are progressively aging. By operating new equipment in a new plant while operating old
equipment, we will make progress in increasing production in parallel with facility renewals. As soon as possible,
I would like our most important initiative to be the upgrading of our production systems.
As the market for lithography systems is maturing, we are making headway with reviews of entries into new
elds that would enable us to leverage the technologies and know-how that our business unit possesses. We will
make proactive investments if we are condent that we will be able to make a prot, but we will not enter a eld
that we judge will be unprotable. This is because, rather than continuing to respond in all directions by potential,
making a judgment on whether to do or abort something leads to effective use of limited resources. I believe it is
my duty to make those judgments when necessary.
Overview of Divisions and Business Units
29
NIKON REPORT 2016
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE