A Reliable Manufacturing System That Ensures High-Quality Products

Winning customers' trust is a matter of supplying high-quality products quickly, reliably, and economically. To achieve that goal, we have worked to standardize and streamline our production facilities while strengthening our quality control system. Every production line makes use of multifunctional automated equipment that provides integrated control of production planning. Lead time has been minimized through the introduction of small-lot, mixed flow production systems, and quality assurance has been upgraded with the introduction of an advanced, automated inspection system backed by highly trained quality assurance inspectors who perform the final check.

Production Facilities with Product-Specific Manufacturing Equipment

Our cutting-edge technology is tailored to the needs of specific production lines. For example, our manufacturing facilities for hydraulic excavators are fitted with equipment such as: automated guide frame welders used for temporary fabrication; panel spot-welding technology on the cab line; and automated straightening devices and high speed dry cutters on the new upper-frame line. Similarly, the plant where we manufacture electric mining shovels, work vessels, and other large construction machinery to special order is equipped with a 1,200-ton press and other large manufacturing equipment, as well as 11 ceiling cranes, a robotic welding line, and painting facilities. To ensure the very highest product quality, our hydraulic excavator plants have specially designed test sites where field tests are conducted on all excavator models, and the large equipment plant has a 30,000 m² site for testing large cranes before they are shipped.

KOBELCO Technology Is Hard at Work in Five Countries Around the World

In July 2002, we established a new plant in Italy to manufacture hydraulic excavators. With this addition, we now have a manufacturing network that directly serves the five largest markets in the world: Japan, China, Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe.

Manufacturing center

Japan
Hiroshima Plant
Hydraulic excavators
Ogaki Plant
Mini excavators

ISO9001 and ISO14001 Certification

International ISO certification can only be obtained by manufacturing plants that have optimized their operations while carefully analyzing and inspecting all manufacturing processes involved. Our Hiroshima and Okubo plants have received ISO9001 certification for quality assurance and ISO14001 certification for environmental management systems. We are now in the process of developing equivalent manufacturing systems in our overseas facilities.