The Status and Future of Printing Industry in the Information Age

Let me first briefly introduce our company's profile.

Established in 1934, Fujifilm's business goal was to produce photographic film. Since then, the development and manufacturing technology of photographic film has gradually expanded to the broad areas of development, production, and sales of imaging and information related equipment. Nowadays, it has grown into a multinational group of about 160 domestic and foreign companies with approximately 70,000 employees, not only in Japan. At the same time, mass production and sales worldwide are expected to total more than 2 trillion 500 million yen in 2001.

As we all know in China, we are also active in production, sales and service activities. In addition to sales of general photographic materials such as photographic film, printing products, medical equipment, and information recording equipment, we also manufacture digital camera primary imaging cameras, primary imaging photographic paper, and APS cameras in Suzhou. Tianjin manufactures lenses and other products. I am also very honored to be awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Suzhou. In addition, we have established a deep relationship with China through sponsoring activities such as the Asian Games held in Beijing in 1990 and the China Football League. Further, we started to participate in the land printing company operated by the China Institute of Printing Science and Technology, a central scientific research organization in the field of printing technology in China last year. Last month, we established a Fujifilm (China) Investment Co., Ltd. in Suzhou with Fujifilm Digital Imaging Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Suzhou and Chinese companies. In addition, we obtained the shares of Fuji Xerox as a subsidiary of our group in March of last year. We will also be greeted by people from all walks of life in China, from the production of electrostatic copy-based document production solutions to personalized printing. The scope will be more and more extensive. In the future, we also fervently hope to further expand this good relationship.

In addition to materials and processing equipment such as plate making, printing plates, and digital proofing, the company's business related to printing platemaking includes graphic and photocopying machine mechanisms, scanners and other electronic imaging equipment. As an extremely broad product lineup, we maintain a deep relationship with the printing industry. For our company, the business of printing plate making is one of the pillars of the basic business after the photography business. It is very important.

Next, let me talk a little bit about personal opinions about the present and future of the printing industry.

Everyone now believes that the printing industry is moving toward a unique industry with the dual nature of "manufacturing" and "information industry" as well as the "information industry" and is constantly strengthening the image of "information exchange industry." Along with this change, the printing industry is not only confined to the dry information processing industry but also to the information intermediary industry, information publishing industry, etc. The Japanese printing industry has redefined the printing industry as the “information value creation industry” in its latest report for the 21st century. ".

In the light of these points of view to explore the direction of future development of the printing industry, I first wanted to talk about the relationship between the IT revolution and printing. Many people think that as an example of the impact of the factory revolution on the printing industry, e-papers such as electronic advertisements and e-mails have made the printing needs of the traditional papers of the Keiko Group relatively sluggish. But I am firmly convinced that even today in what is called the IT Revolution, it goes without saying that paper is still one of the most superior media. The role of paper-based printing will never continue to shrink in the future. At the same time, there is a wide range of customer-level printing industries. The opportunity for not only the printing of paper to provide customers with solutions to various problems will also increase. It may even be thought that there will never be any new demand. The printing industry will expand its opportunities for coping with positive opportunities. Know the angle.

on the other hand. It is also an indisputable fact that the exhibition of dry IT technology is infiltrating the printing industry and related industries. As a result, ensuring the identity of the printing industry is also a topic for us in the industry. As a business topic that must be explored quickly, I think that we can focus on the following aspects: Facing the rapid development of the T-Revolution strategy, increasing "knowledge added value" to establish a competitive advantage, and fully meet the requirements of the relevant industries, the cultivation of creativity, follow-up The market fully responds to new market demands and so on.

With the digitization of various information contents, new demands have arisen to select useful parts from these complicated contents and apply them to various media in various forms. It is important to effectively manage the operational content resources in order to improve the efficiency of this series of operations. In order to achieve content management that can fully meet customer needs, it is necessary to build a dedicated digital resource management system. I think this just happens to show a new direction for the printing industry that has been dealing with all kinds of information content. It can also be said that this is an opportunity we can enter into new fields such as digital content creation and release of one-to-one market support.

On the other hand, the printing platemaking process itself has also been accompanied by the continuous deepening of digitization and has achieved great changes centered on the prepress process. The computerization of text, image processing and typesetting, and the popularity of photo and text-composing machines are concrete examples of this transformation. The key question in the future is how to further deepen this trend from planning, placing orders through image processing, plate making, printing, to delivery, settlement processing, and building a digital process for the entire process to establish more efficient brush manufacturing. Process.

From the point of view of the production process of printing images to printing, the following diversifications have also appeared:
CTF (Direct Computer Production)

CTP (Computer to Plate)

CTC (Computer Direct Machine-Machine Plate)

POD (direct printing personalized printing)

The CTP will continue to grow in the coming years. CTP can be roughly divided into photosensitive resins, thermal silver salts, etc. Customers can choose according to their own concerns. Although all of the above methods have been put into practical use, I think that it is technically still in the process of development compared with the traditional PS version. The photosensitive resin plate corresponding to the violet laser will also be a promising technology for future development. The CTP penetration rate is about 7% in Japan and more than 10% in the world. I think that even after 5 years or 70%, the printing plate making process using printed film will still be preserved. At the same time, on-press plate-making directly on the plate cylinder and direct printing using magnetic ink (powder) for printing on paper have started to use dry black or color short-lived printing. The progress of these digital printing methods also deserve our attention.

I think how to understand the characteristics of each company in a variety of ways is the most important business topic.

Fujifilm and its outlets have already adopted "image solutions and information solutions and document solutions" as the slogan of multinational corporations. This slogan, as a guideline for the development of new products in daily operations, continues to exert a strong impact on the subsidiaries or employees. In addition, the basic starting point for the company's development is to use this slogan as the keynote to fully provide users with new technologies, products, and system software in both analog and digital positions. For example, the field of digital cameras and silver salt films are also the world's leading technology providers with a leading position in the Japanese market that is generally considered to be particularly stringent in quality requirements.

The company is determined to make greater contributions to the industry by flexibly applying the technology accumulated over a long period of time and leading other companies to develop products of different grades. The company develops a wide range of technologies and product lines in chemistry, optics, and electronics. Software and other fields have unique image technologies and organically combine these technologies to provide solutions that can take advantage of a wide range of technological advantages.

In addition, the multi-directional management and related technologies that can be exchanged from general consumption materials to industrial equipment are the advantages of our company. For example, the field of printing platemaking first experienced digital baptism. The technologies developed in this area have been applied to the general photography and medical fields. At the same time, the key technologies developed in the general field of photography and document information establishment have in turn been flexibly applied to the printing industry.

It is important to continue to strive to improve quality and continue to respond to changes in order to grow in a competitive and transformative business environment. Technological innovation is an opportunity as well as a challenge. But it is still technological innovation that can turn this challenge into an opportunity. We will use the motto “Using cutting-edge IT technology to best respond quickly to changing customer needs”.

The company plans to invest more than 400 million yen in research and development expenses every day in 2001. This figure will account for a significant proportion of the company’s revenue. This is because we have realized that in order to cope with the changes, we must constantly accelerate the development of products that can cope with the changes. The slightest negligence will lead to the loss of market competitiveness and thus fail to meet the expectations of the industry.

The company has a wide range of technologies and product lines as well as strong technical service capabilities. We are determined to exert our strengths as a member of the best companies that can cope with the diverse needs of users. Our goal is to have the backbone area respond to its own technology's own products and to collaborate with other companies on the basis of need for technical licensing as a supplier of total solutions from input to output.

Another thing that cannot be forgotten is the environmental protection of the earth. We not only recognize that this is one of the management issues, but also put it as the cornerstone of the survival of the enterprise into the future development.

As a comprehensive manufacturer of "1 & 1", "images and information," we fully recognize our responsibility and role. Efforts have been made to develop a system that combines the strengths of both digital and analog technologies to provide new products and new technologies that can respond to changes in the industry. We are determined to continue to contribute to the new development of the entire industry in the new century. Therefore, we sincerely invite you to continue your support.

About the Author

Born on January 28, 1925, graduated from the Department of Economics, University of Tokyo. Currently, he is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fujifilm Industries, Ltd., Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., Fuji Photolight Co., Ltd., Fujifilm ARCH Co., Ltd., Fuji Medicine Co., Ltd., and Oacel Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. Supervisor.

Joined Fujifilm Co., Ltd. in 1948, became the director of the New York firm in 1964, became a member of the board of directors in 1972, served as a managing director in 1976, served as a managing director in 1979, served as president in 1980, and acted as president and chief executive in 1996. official. Other positions include: permanent director of the Federation of Economic Organizations, accounting director of the Economic Association of Friends, permanent member of the Japan Business Group Association, president of the Japan Photo Association, and president of the Nissan Association.