The story
1930s-1940s
As an elementary school student living in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture in the 1930s, Kenichi Mabuchi, the son of a tin plate factory owner, enjoyed inventing things such as a homemade washing machine, bamboo toy guns, helicopters, and a model boat that ran on alcohol (and which exploded and burned him when he switched out the alcohol for gasoline). In junior high school, Kenichi won the 5th Shikoku Model Airplane Tournament, beating his adult competition by crafting the plane with the longest flight duration.
World War II
Kenichi's brother, Takaichi, was ten years younger, and loved making things with his older brother. Takaichi entered a technical junior high school, but on the night of July 3, 1945, Takaichi's school was destroyed in the firebombing of Takamatsu by US B-29 warplanes.
In order to survive food shortages, their father sold the family's factory and put the brothers to work in the fields. But Kenichi soon quit working on the farm. He gathered his friends and scoured the burned ruins for metal and copper wire to use in making simple DC motors as educational tools for use in elementary schools. This "School Motor" sold well, and in 1946 Kenichi Mabuchi founded Kansai Rika Kenkyusho, a scientific research institute.
First postwar motor
In the summer of 1947, after a company in Osaka copied the design of the school motor, Kenichi realized the value of patent applications, then went back to the drawing board and invented the world's first high performance, "horseshoe-shaped" magnetic DC motor. Takaichi turned 18, left the farm, and began working with Kenichi in sales.
1950s
In 1951, as Japanese wind-up toys lost credibility in the marketplace due to the introduction of power toys overseas, with exports dropping to 20% of the previous year, the Mabuchi brothers managed to secure a contract to supply the motor needs of a toy car manufacturer in Tokyo. Since their factory in Takamatsu was originally a sheet metal plant and had already reached capacity, Kenichi and Takaichi decided to relocate with 10 key employees and build a new factory in Tokyo, near their principal customer.
On January 18, 1954, using their patent for a new, smaller horseshoe-shaped motor as collateral to raise sufficient capital, the brothers established Tokyo Science Industrial Co., Ltd. for the production of small electric motors for toys and scientific apparatuses, with Kenichi Mabuchi as managing director and Takaichi Mabuchi as executive director. Takaichi soon had an idea for a new type of motor to power larger toys. Crafted from an alloy of iron, aluminum, and nickel, Takaichi's patented "alnico motor" proved more powerful than the one his older brother invented and just as easy to mass-produce.
Toy manufacturing
By August 1955, Japan Science and Industry Co., Ltd. was established as a joint venture with a major toy manufacturer, and an automatic armature coil winding apparatus was developed, thereby expanding production capacity to 30,000 motors per day. The machines were exceptionally loud but resulted in lower prices and cheaper toys for the children of Japan. But in September 1957, American newspapers reported that lead based paints were used on some toys imported from Japan. The Japanese toy industry was hit by a sharp drop in demand. The Mabuchi brothers, however, seized on this development as an opportunity to break away from their exclusive relationship with the toy manufacturer.
Exports
Export operations began in September 1957 with the creation of Mabuchi Shoji Co., Ltd. In the spring of 1958, Kenichi bought back his own company's shares and dissolved the joint venture with their toy producing customer. After dissolving Tokyo Science Industrial Co., Ltd. along with Japan Science and Industry Co., Ltd., Kenichi and Takaichi established Mabuchi Industrial Co., Ltd. The brothers worked together to refine their alnico motor by replacing the alnico magnet with a ferrite magnet, resulting in April 1958 in a utility model patent for a ferrite "F-type motor" with the same power of the alnico motor but at half the cost and weight. At 20 yen per motor, the Mabuchi brothers had matched the price of an old wind-up toy. The F-type motor became widely used in model cars.
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In March 1959, with the advent of portable, cordless tape recorders, the Mabuchi brothers changed the company's name to Tokyo Science Co., Ltd. and developed a small, quiet tape recorder motor with long life and low electricity consumption.
Audio equipment and timepieces
No longer satisfied with simply making motors for toys and determined to break into markets for high-tech consumer goods, Kenichi and Takaichi continually improved upon the F-type motor. They increased the precision of the shaft and improved the commutator and brush, reducing noise and power consumption to 10% of the original F-type motor and axis deviation to less than 10 microns, and extending lifespan by 50–100 times to 1,000–2,000 hours. In January 1960, the "FM-250 motor" was born, and, in April, high-precision "RM type" small electric motors were developed, leading Mabuchi into the audio equipment and timepiece markets.
By March 1962, the company opened a new factory in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, and achieved a daily production rate of 200,000 motors.
Slot cars
1963 saw the development of two of Mabuchi's most important motors. The first, released in April, was the FT, which became a popular choice for use in slot cars. The second major development, released in October, was the RS series. This motor put Mabuchi not only in the home appliance market but in the radio control market as well. RS motors like the RS 380 and RS 540 are still used today in car, boat and aircraft models. Also in October, in order to change the par value of its stock, Takamatsu Lumber Co., Ltd. (established 1926) was merged and the company name was changed to Tokyo Science Co., Ltd. At the same time, the headquarters was moved to Katsushika Ward in Tokyo.
Embezzlement of company funds
The Mabuchi brothers celebrated the tenth anniversary of Tokyo Science in late 1963 with a party at a restaurant in Akasaka, attended by over 1,000 company employees, as well as visitors from the toy industry, the financial sector, and the United States. After delivering the keynote address, Kenichi was approached by Takaichi who informed him of the results of an internal investigation. Certain people in upper management had secretly been adding extra charges to the costs of purchasing components. They pooled the money in a slush fund and used it to open another company. Kenichi was furious. He fired the ringleaders and asked anyone who knew about the theft and had failed to inform him to apologize straight away and promise to mend their ways. This scandal prompted the Mabuchi brothers to establish the Mabuchi management principle, "Contributing to international society and continuously increasing our contribution". An employee handbook was circulated, called "Purposes and Meanings of Company Business".
Production in Hong Kong
The Mabuchi brothers were also among the first Japanese executives to catch on to the international trend of developing production capacity overseas. Because a company in Hong Kong was making inferior quality copies of motors and selling them to British Commonwealth countries at low cost with the benefit of a preferential tariff, the Mabuchi brothers decided to build their own factory in Hong Kong and compete head to head. In February 1964, Mabuchi Industry Co., Ltd. was established in San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Offices in US and Germany
In March 1965, Mabuchi moved its Japanese factory from a flood-prone area to a safe and large piece of land secured in Matsudo, Chiba (the current location of the corporate headquarters) just outside Tokyo. An American sales office was also opened in New York City. In April 1966, a compact, high-performance motor (RE type) went on the market, and in March of the following year, a submarine motor as a power source for toys and hobbies was also brought to market. Now the company was steadily growing, and by 1968, annual production had reached a volume of 100 million. In July that year, a new high-performance, low-cost motor (FA type) was introduced.
The European representative office was opened in Frankfurt, Germany, in October, 1968. In January 1969, with 100% financing from the parent company, Tohoku Mabuchi Co., Ltd. was established, increasing the capacity for processing components, and thus coping with a labor shortage (this subsidiary was moved to the city of Matsudo, and its name was changed first to Mabuchi Electric Industries Ltd. in July 1977, then to Mabuchi Finance in June 1989, before being liquidated in January 1998).
Production in Taiwan
Production expanded to Taiwan when new facilities were established there in December 1969 as Mabuchi Taiwan Co., Ltd. to form a motor supply network for the world market.
The "custom made" problem
By the dawn of the 1970s, Mabuchi had become one of the world's leading producers of original equipment motors for consumer electronics, toys and model aircraft. But a new problem arose: the "custom made" problem. Usually in the manufacturing industry, making small quantities of many products was the norm, in order to meet market needs. So Mabuchi was taking orders for motors with different specs from each customer and manufacturing motors customized to the client's specifications each time. When production volume was small, the company managed to handle it, but by the 1970s, volume had grown and it became hard to handle all those orders with slightly different specs. The company was oversupplied with a variety of machines and parts. From buying materials, gathering components, machining and assembly, to shipping the products, the production line grew disorderly and difficult to manage. Moreover, there was a time gap between production and the slack of business, with orders mainly centering on customers' Christmas sales campaigns. Because of this, the company had to hire extra seasonal workers every year before the holidays when the factories grew too busy and then discharge them when the period was over and production became slow.
Mabuchi called this the "custom made" problem because it could not keep a back stock of custom spec orders. Since the company had to make the custom motors after it received an order, it took considerable time to deliver. So if the customer had an unexpected hit product, Mabuchi would struggle to meet the sudden increased demand. If turn around time was not quick enough, clients would become upset because they missed a business opportunity and Mabuchi would be giving up potential profits as well. Additionally, when orders came in all at once, factory workers would have to work overtime and on their days off to meet deadlines. The rate of defective products would go up, as would quality control problems and customer complaints. And the defective motors would need to be replaced, increasing pressure on the delivery dates.
Product standardization
The solution was product standardization. Rather than make tiny changes to shaft length and the number of coils in what was essentially the same motor, the company began making several standard products with 5mm notched shafts, reducing the number of possible 1mm or 2mm variations and allowing Mabuchi to transition into a stock production system. Customers were given the option to continue buying custom motors according to their specifications or to buy standardized motors on an inventory sales basis for a 20% discount. Product quality and delivery speed were improved while cost and waste were reduced, such that by June 1971 over 80% of Mabuchi motors were standard products.
In March 1971, the company's name was changed from Tokyo Science to Mabuchi Motor Co. Ltd. Then, in July, a new headquarters building was completed and the corporate headquarters was moved to Matsudo. The FA-130 motor was introduced. At the same time, Mabuchi was in talks with a world-class manufacturer of electric shavers which had a demand for a special core motor with the close to the same efficiency as a coreless motor. The Mabuchi brothers developed the motor, model RD-180, and it was smaller and more responsive than the electric shaver company's previous motor. Takaichi Mabuchi quoted a price per unit of 100 yen and the shaver company representative tried to correct Takaichi's supposed "mistake" of leaving off a zero, thinking the RD-180 should cost at least 1,000 yen. But Takaichi was quite serious and sold the shaver motor for a tenth of the price the shaver company was willing to pay. In so doing, he secured a supply contract for all of the shaver company's motor needs.
Cheaper boomboxes
Next, tape recorders changed from open-reel to cassette tape, and in 1972 the radio cassette deck, or "boombox", was released; it became a popular for personal use mainly among young people. As far as Mabuchi Motor was concerned, the key part of a radio cassette deck was that it must be able to spin quietly and stably to produce quality sound. The rotation speed could not change even with changes in voltage, temperature or load. A regular DC motor would not suffice; instead, the company had to develop a new motor with the capability to adjust its speed, a "governor motor". In the past, the company's engineers had experimented with both types of governor motor, mechanical and electronic governors. But since it would be difficult to reduce the price of a mechanical governor, while electronic governors were growing cheaper all the time, Takaichi Mabuchi decided to proceed with an electronic governor.
By manufacturing Japanese designed electronic governor motors overseas in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Mabuchi Motor reduced the cost of boomboxes through mass production of the motors that operated their cassette tapes. In December 1972, Mabuchi's exporting arm, Mabuchi World Trade Co., Ltd. (formerly Mabuchi Shoji Co., Ltd.), was merged with the domestic sales (business) division. A sales (business) department was opened at the site of Mabuchi World Trade Co., Ltd. (Nihonbashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo). In order to expand production at Mabuchi Taiwan Co., Ltd., in October 1973 a new factory was constructed and existing production facilities were modernized. In March 1974, as part of efforts to streamline business management, new, high-precision machine tools reflecting the latest technology were introduced and added to the machine tool division of the main factory. In addition, Mabuchi Precision Industries, Ltd. was established in Tatebayashi City, Gunma Prefecture for in-house production of motor shafts. An airplane motor went on the market in July as a new power source for model airplanes.
In March 1975, a motor with a built-in electronic governor went on the market, allowing the company to move into new markets for cassette tape recorders, home stereo equipment and other household electronics. The RF-510G was born. It sold for 400 yen, the same price as an outdated mechanical governor. At first, electronics companies were somewhat leery of working with a supplier that got its start making motors for toy cars. But one after another, brand name manufacturers chose the quality and price of the RF-510G, and the Mabuchi brothers helped bring affordable Japanese radio cassette decks, portable headphone stereo CD players, and numerous other products in the audio visual field, to consumers across the world.
ATMs and car mirrors
By being first to market with a completed product while rival motor manufacturers were still at the prototype stage, Mabuchi Motor built considerable goodwill in the consumer electronics industry. Then, in May, nickel-cadmium batteries were introduced onto the market, and Mabuchi responded by producing a fast-action battery charger for home use as a low-energy electric power source. By July, the sales department moved to the headquarters at Matsudo, and a comprehensive administration system encompassing production, sales, technology and financial operations was established. In September 1975, a geared motor went on the market, allowing Mabuchi to enter the vending machine market and other markets. Also that month, car mirror motors came on the scene, and the company fully entered into the automobile electrical equipment market.
In order to increase competitiveness in a fluctuating world economy, and to expand productive capacity, in July 1976, a new production facility was constructed in Tsuen Wan by Mabuchi Industry Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong. Then, in August, a new power system went on the market for electrically powered radio-controlled models by combining a high-powered motor and nickel-cadmium battery that can be quickly recharged. The New York representative office was closed in January 1977 and, instead, Mabuchi Motor America Corp. was established in New York City for sales and service operations to respond directly to local needs and to focus on developing new markets (in 1997, the US head office was moved to Detroit).
In March 1978, Mabuchi Taiwan Co., Ltd. constructed a new factory at Hukou. A third Taiwanese production facility, at Kaohsiung, was added in August 1979.
VCRs
In the early 1980s, Mabuchi entered both the VCR and battery-operated power tool markets. In 1980, a VCR motor was introduced to the market, and Mabuchi Motor fully entered the video equipment market. As a result, in December of that year, Mabuchi Motor Taiwan Ltd. enlarged its production facilities. In 1981, an electric drill motor emerged onto the market, and the company fully entered the industrial equipment market. Then, in August 1982, the Tateishi Factory of Mabuchi Electric Industries Ltd. was established in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo.
Portable CD players
From the start of the CD player era, Mabuchi Motor was selected by major Japanese and European audiovisual manufacturers to supply standardized CD player motors such as the RF-310TA and the RF-300CA. With their overwhelming product levels, the Mabuchi brothers secured a 90% share of the CD player business, spurring rival companies to surrender.
The audiovisual device field, and the precision instrument field, had a huge impact on the motor industry. In March 1984, Mabuchi Motor Taiwan Ltd. constructed a second factory. Then, in April, the corporate headquarters were moved to Matsudo, near Matsuhidai Station, halfway between Narita International Airport and downtown Tokyo on the Hokuso Line.
Initial public offering (IPO)
In July, Mabuchi Taiwan Co., Ltd. expanded its Hukou factory. That same month, through registration in the over-the-counter market, Mabuchi Motor initiated the public sale of its stock shares. By October, Mabuchi's Technical Center reached completion. In addition to concentrating research and development activities in a single facility and promoting technical information sharing, the center was equipped with high-tech research facilities.
The development of a heavy-duty printer motor in 1985 led to Mabuchi's entry into the office equipment market. In March 1986, the Guangdong factory of Mabuchi Industry Co., Ltd. in Guangdong, China, started processing and manufacturing activities on a commission basis. Mabuchi Motor went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 1986 and was listed as a member of the second section.
In March 1987, so as to grasp the tendencies and needs of the Singapore and ASEAN markets at top speed, a representative office was set up in Singapore. Then, in October, the first Chinese subsidiary company totally financed by Japanese enterprises, Mabuchi Motor Dalian Ltd., was established and the supply system for the world market was strengthened.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mabuchi Motor, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4