Ricoh Co Ltd. Releases Statement on Impact of Thai Floods

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Date: Tuesday November 29, 2011 09:35:36 am
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    Ricoh Company Ltd. Releases Statement on Impact of Thai Floods

    Major floods have occurred in Thailand since July, 2011 causing difficulty and challenges for the country and the situation has not yet settled. Our hearts go out to the victims of the floods which devastated such a broad area in Thailand.

    While there is no direct damage to the two Ricoh manufacturing facilities in Thailand, widespread floods have affected the procurement of parts. Consequently some impact on our product supply is foreseeable. In order to minimize this impact, the Ricoh Group is taking all possible measures including checking on the situation of each affected supplier, updating an inventory of parts by model and looking into alternative sources of parts.

    We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. We will proactively keep monitoring the situation and assessing the level of any future potential impact on our products. Your understanding is much appreciated.

    http://www.action-intell.com/2011/11/29/ricoh-faces-parts-procurement-challenges-in-flooded-thailand/
    Ricoh Faces Parts-Procurement Challenges in Flooded Thailand
    On November 24, Ricoh announced that the flooding in Thailand has not damaged its two manufacturing facilities in the country, but the widespread floods have affected the procurement of parts. The company adds, “Consequently some impact on our product supply is foreseeable. In order to minimize this impact, the Ricoh Group is taking all possible measures including checking on the situation of each affected supplier, updating an inventory of parts by model and looking into alternative sources of parts.” The statement did not supply additional details, such as which products may be in short supply.

    Ricoh has two manufacturing sites in Thailand: Ricoh Manufacturing (Thailand) Ltd. (RMT) and Yamanashi Electronics (Thailand) Co., Ltd. RMT manufactures about 20,000 small monochrome laser printers per month, and Yamanashi Electronics manufactures about 600,000 OPC drums per month.

    This latest Ricoh statement is similar to one that the firm issued in October (see “Thai Flooding Update: Ricoh and Others Possibly Affected” for our coverage or the original Ricoh news release). Back in October, Ricoh said that none of its production facilities have been damaged and that there was no impact on Yamanashi Electronics’ production. However, some of RMT’s production lines had to stop operating on October 17 as Ricoh looked into sourcing components elsewhere, such as China.

    So what is really new about the November update? While the language of the latest news release is ambiguous, it seems that it is possible that the Yamanashi Electronics facility may be experiencing parts-procurement difficulties as well. If true, this would pose far more significant difficulties for Ricoh than the trouble with the RMT plant. Shifting production of 20,000 laser printers per month is a headache for Ricoh, to be sure. However, if Yamanashi Electronics is experiencing a slowdown or even a stoppage in production, Ricoh would have to move production of up to 600,000 OPC drums monthly to other facilities. This would be harder to accomplish quickly and would likely have a bigger impact on Ricoh in terms of potential product shortages.

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