Rich Minifie, senior AM engineer at Ricoh, explains The Ricoh Way
When you start work at Ricoh 3D, along with all the usual equipment, you are handed an A6 “Bible” entitled ‘The Ricoh Way’.
All companies have goals and objectives, but I can honestly say that our production values and commitment to continuous improvement structures everything we do – from manufacturing to distribution, business sites to recycling.
The Japanese culture of excellence in manufacturing has been sustained more than 80 years to stand the test of time and help transform our operations, with customer centricity at our heart.
Ricoh moved into the production printing market in 2007, when it started assembling machinery for printers at its Telford headquarters. Today the site manufactures toner consumables, provides a 2D printing service and remanufactures used equipment, with R&D activities in inkjet technologies.
In 2016 the Telford facility became the European centre for Additive Manufacturing, a world-class facility where European clients come to experience Ricoh’s AM solutions in action.
The Ricoh Way Production System which underpins this operation is structured by 12 Key Fundamentals. Employees are expected to use these as the benchmark for their daily work and originate from the founding principles of the Ricoh Group mission: love your neighbour, love your country and love your work.
That ethos has remained constant over more than eight decades, harmonising operations across all of the European centres and driving:
- Integration of the Ricoh Way Values
- Strengthening of the continuous improvement culture
- Employee behaviours and skills aligned with the Ricoh Production System
- Standardisation, stabilisation and sharing of good practices
- Sharing of our platinum-accredited tools for improving company performance
I have been with Ricoh for 19 years in ever-developing roles and I can honestly say I’m proud to be here.
Things are moving fast in the AM department and it’d be easy to get lost in the momentum, but having these core principles in place helps to ensure we maintain the standards people expect from the Ricoh name.
Get in touch today to see them in action.