Latent needs, local industry

In August 2020, Estorage, which operates under the brand of Shuno Labo, meaning “storage lab,” opened a showroom in Tokyo’s Ginza district, its third after those in Nagoya and Yokohama. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Tokyo showroom is only accepting customers with reservations. Still, customer traffic remains vibrant.

The advantage of custom-made furniture is that it can be designed to suit items for storage or the existing floor plan. In addition to functional advantages, owners can develop an emotional attachment to a custom piece. Companies that specialize in custom-built wall storage furniture are rare in Japan. Estorage has sold over 4,000 items by capturing the hearts of consumers dissatisfied with general-use storage goods.

Estorage President Katsunori Yajima remembers two complaints he heard from customers when he was in the build-to-order home business. “I finally bought a house, but I’m not satisfied with the storage space,” one said. Another asked, “How can I get a shelf to perfectly fit this space?” It was customer complaints like these that eventually led him to found the company. Yajima, who is from a family engaged in furniture manufacturing in Seki, Gifu Prefecture, was also worried about the future of the local woodworking industry.

“Many people were not satisfied with built-in storage furniture or products available at shops, while the wooden furniture industry was declining despite superior technology, cornered by cheap, mass-produced products,” Yajima said. “I was convinced I could create a big market by linking them.”

His conviction led to a business model that mass produces and quickly delivers custom, high-quality storage furniture. He established Estorage in 2007 at the age of 27, using money from his own pocket.

Unique production system

Estorage’s operation is supported by a production structure based on a proprietary system. The system creates 3D imaging data based on plans made by sales staff, and passes them to the manufacturing division, which uses them for processing. Yajima describes this system as “an idea similar to building information modeling,” which is used by a growing number of companies, including general contractors. This has allowed Estorage to improve the efficiency of its design, manufacturing and installation processes. Since this model allows the company to achieve roughly the same flexibility as using preinstalled furniture and high production efficiency at the same time, Estorage craftsmen can put their skills to maximum use to provide what customers want. Yajima takes pride in this advantage of his company, which he says is possible because it is an independent manufacturer that handles both manufacturing and sales.

Work with auto parts maker

In April 2020, ventilators were increasingly hard to come by at clinics and hospitals as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading across the globe. One company that responded to urgent calls to deliver ventilators was Metran Co., a manufacturer based in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture.

The company uses a unique technology called high-frequency oscillation (HFO) that can be used for assisting newborn or premature infants, taking their delicate respiratory organs into consideration. Its products are used in about 90% of neonatal intensive care units in Japan’s hospitals. A 2018 report by UNICEF found babies born in Japan have the best chance at survival in the world. The world’s lowest newborn mortality rate is no doubt supported by Metran’s ventilator. But elsewhere, there are no small number of cases in which newborns or premature infants are exposed to the risk of losing their lives. Metran, which already had a production facility in Vietnam, has in recent years embarked on an all-out endeavor to develop overseas markets.

To respond to METI’s call to boost production of medical equipment following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in April 2020, the company launched a project to manufacture ventilators for COVID-19 patients using a production facility and human resources of Marelli Corp., a major auto component maker known formerly as Calsonic Kansei Corp. Marelli supported Metran on procurement of components and product assembly, which were affected by interruptions in supply chains. The project proceeded at an unusually fast pace. Production lines were quickly set up at Marelli’s Kodama plant in Saitama Prefecture, and mass production started by the end of June. Ventilators manufactured at these lines were supplied to not only Japanese locations, but also to other countries, including Vietnam, Bolivia, the Kyrgyz Republic and Indonesia.

Critical medical technology

“We mainly manufacture ventilators, but we also handle oxygen concentrators,” Metran President Dan Nitta said. “We have never before seen such a strong demand for our products, and it is very satisfying to be contributing to society in this way.” Nitta faced the pandemic soon after he took the helm of the company in December 2019. Facing surging orders and the global spread of the infection, he scrambled to boost production. Currently, he is working on a second joint project with Marelli, to market a new type of face mask that blocks virus intrusion using an air curtain. The product, which supplies air cleaned using a high-performance filter, is targeted at workers in areas with a high risk of infection.