AzetPR – Big in Japan

FFor our clients we go the extra mile – or in this instance, more than 5000 miles. That is the distance we recently travelled to the land of the rising sun for our client Okuma. In addition to a wide range of cultural impressions, our two-man team, consisting of a PR-editor and a press photographer, returned with extensive interview notes on the latest trade fair innovations as well as countless photos of state-of-the-art machine tools. The result? Widely published articles in the international trade press! The bulk of the machine tool manufacturer’s production is located in Ōguchi. This is where our PR-team went, as the Japanese town in the Aichi prefecture was home to a number of milestones for Okuma. In addition to the company’s biennial in-house exhibition, displaying the latest machine tools and technologies, it was also the venue for the celebration of Okuma’s 120-year anniversary. Undoubtedly, one of the highlights for the over 8,000 visitors to Okuma’s exhibition was a tour through the newly-opened smart factory “Dream Site 2”. The fully automated facility sets new standards in terms of smart manufacturing and thus is tailor-made for an interesting trade article. In on-site interviews our editor gathered information on the high-tech factory while our photographer shot the large number of robot-assisted flexible manufacturing cells and cutting-edge technologies. The result of this impressive visit is currently being published in the international trade press. We also had the honour of interviewing Yoshimaro Hanaki, President and CEO of the Okuma Corporation, on the significance of smart manufacturing and the future of the machine tool industry – renowned trade magazines all across Europe published this rare one-on-one with the Okuma visionary.