Canon Inc. plans to slash production costs by at least 300 billion yen (US$3.896 billion) by installing automating lines at home and abroad locations as a part of drastic overhauls to cope with the strong yen and fierce competition by 2015.
Canon had been using robots to replace workers at its toner plant in Oita, Japan. It plans to introduce the same system to its factories in the US and Europe. It plans to increase the number of automated toner production lines at its toner plant in Virginia from the present three to ten. In Europe, Canon plans to build a factory that will handle everything from automated production to recycling. Along with these measures, the company has decided to lower their cost-to-sales ratio to a record low of 45 percent by 2015, down from 52 percent in 2010.
Canon expects its total sales to hit 5 trillion yen (US$64.9 billion) in 2015, up 35 percent from 2010, and its group net profit to reach 500 billion yen (US$6.49 billion).
