bizhub C353/C253/C203Development Story

� | bizhub C353/C�53/C�03 Development Story

Prologue

bizhub C353/C�53/C�03 Development Story

The new black bizhub C353/C253/C203 were announced at an international conference centre in

Frankfurt, Germany, in a special event that brought together Konica Minolta managers from all over

Europe. Following a presentation by one of the German product managers, the C353/C253/C203

product engineers, Toshio Sakata, lead device developer, and Takayuki Nabeshima, lead control

developer, were deeply moved to view the product from the outside looking in, and immediately

recognised the overall impact of this striking new series of bizhub MFPs. In Mr. Sakata's words, it's

"an MFP series unlike any before it."

Toshio Sakata

Lead Device DeveloperDevice Development Headquarters

Takayuki Nabeshima

Lead Control DeveloperControl Development Headquarters

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I started out to build the world's

favourite colour MFP.

T oshio Sakata has been at the forefront of copy mechanism development for many years at Konica Minolta. He has worked on many of Konica Minolta's black-and-

white models, and led the development of the bizhub C450, which went on to claim Europe's No. 1 share for colour MFPs. The bizhub C450 won top marks for its image quality, which was no doubt part of the reason for Mr. Sakata's appointment as development leader for the C353/C253/C203. These machines are the focus of much attention because they reside in the largest volume zone for MFPs. In other words, Mr. Sakata was given the reins to an area of product strategy that is crucial enough to affect the company's operations. As Mr. Sakata describes it, "When this project got the green light, I decided to build the world's favourite MFP. The image I had was to see one of these bizhubs in virtually every office in the world, bringing a new work style to people everywhere. I wanted everyone to be able to experience the way this MFP made their work so much easier." Of course, the "world's favourite MFP" translates into the ideal MFP, with high performance and utility combined with an extremely high level of usability—a machine that everyone in the office would welcome.

On the other hand, control development leader Takayuki Nabeshima began his career in camera development. "When I first entered the company, I was placed

in charge of the auto focus function for compact cameras. At the time, auto focus was a revolutionary function because it was making it so much easier and more enjoyable to take photos," explained Mr. Nabeshima. "My father was an electrical engineer and ran an assembly plant for musical equipment, so I grew up around electrical equipment." Mr. Nabeshima learned about electrical engineering by watching and then practicing what he saw. As an elementary school student, he surprised his family by building an electric powered curtain system all by himself. He has now been a member of Konica Minolta for more than 20 years, which includes 13 years of experience in information equipment. He began his involvement with developing information equipment by taking charge of CCD-related development and image processing for scanners. His appointment as control development leader began with the bizhub C250. Mr. Nabeshima described his thinking as follows: "Because I started out working on cameras, I developed a strong interest in creating things that would make their users happy. So when I took on the job to develop the bizhub control, I wanted to make a machine that was both user-friendly and exciting, something that would pleasantly surprise people who were using a colour MFP for the first time."

� | bizhub C353/C�53/C�03 Development Story

Rule No. 1: Goals are made to be met,

no matter what.

The bizhub engineers in charge of 'device' and 'control' set out to build “the world's favourite MFP” and “a machine that is both user-friendly and exciting” respectively.

What they aimed for might have been different, but their visions were actually very similar. The relationship between a device and its control is like hardware vs. software. If either of them fails, the whole project goes down the chute. Faced with this challenge, the two leaders agreed on one thing even if they expressed it differently: "While we had a lot of restrictions on things like scheduling and costs, we firmly agreed that the targets we set had to be met—no ifs, ands, or buts." This ironclad conviction thoroughly permeated every member of the team. They all knew that they only had one year to complete their development project.

W hen you first meet these two people, they appear to have completely opposite personalities. Toshio Sakata would likely be described as mild-mannered, while

Takayuki Nabeshima may seem more outspoken. In reality, though, they have a few important things in common. Team members unanimously say that they both give crystal-clear instructions and make lightning-fast decisions—two very important leadership characteristics. Toshio Sakata: "I actually found myself struggling over a lot of decisions, so much so that I couldn't sleep some nights. But I convinced myself that I simply had to be decisive. Otherwise, I couldn't expect the team to follow me. So once I decided to do something, it just had to be done. We absolutely could not delay the schedule." Another indispensable and complementary leadership trait present in the two engineers was the ability to listen to their team, and to extract good ideas. Takayuki Nabeshima: "The people in the team came up with a lot of very strong, very good ideas. This bottom-up approach helped us to meet quite a few of our goals."

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Things that could only be accomplished

at Konica Minolta.

K onica Minolta evolved from the 2004 merger of Konica Corporation and Minolta Co., Ltd. With the merger came a number of inherited technologies from both Konica and Minolta.

One of these was a long tradition of creating products with a level of image quality that far exceeded anything in their class. Toshio Sakata: "Our goal was to exceed the level of image quality of the bizhub C450." Takayuki Nabeshima: "The engine's different, but the image-processing ASIC itself shares much of the technology that's used in our top-end models. We coordinated with Sakata's team to build in the same imaging concept as in the higher-level models. It certainly wasn't easy, but I'd say we were successful in achieving an equal, or in some cases, even a higher level of performance." Toshio Sakata: "The toner that we used is also for a higher grade of image quality. Simitri HD toner, which was originally developed for professional printing use, allows low-temperature fixing." This level of image quality also produces B/W copies that even exceed the quality of many black-and-white machines.

Another valuable concept that was inherited by Konica Minolta was the idea of holding costs down at all times, but sparing no expense in truly essential areas. Because the

idea of storing documents in the Box function offers optimal convenience only when the documents can be previewed in colour, the bizhub was given a large, colour LCD panel. Takayuki Nabeshima: "We used the same 8.5-inch colour LCD panel as on the upper-grade models. They're operated in exactly the same way, too, so the operation of any bizhub with a colour LCD panel will feel familiar." The paper cassettes are also easier to use than before. Toshio Sakata: "Thick paper can be used in every drawer, and the cassettes in all four drawers hold 500 sheets each. This means that all of the cassettes can be used in exactly the same way." The rear panel looks neat and clean, and efficient cable management allows the machine to be installed almost anywhere. Combined with its elegant design, this forms a revolutionary concept. It is an entirely new idea in office equipment, and it has been very well received. Mr. Sakata's regular advice to the members of his team includes the following: "Never be satisfied with the status quo. Always try to raise specifications." If there's anything that'll make it easier for the customer to use, then do everything you can to add it, even if it's at the very last minute." This devotion to easy operation is another typical Konica Minolta trait.

A new pickup roller gave all cassette drawers a 500-sheet capacity.

There are also some new technologies that resulted from combining Konica and Minolta technologies. One example comes from chemical engineering, which is a Konica

specialty, in the form of a unique functional coating. Toshio Sakata: "We were able to achieve higher performance by applying Konica's expertise in chemical engineering, as seen in our polymerised toner, to Minolta's intermediate transfer technology. The intermediate transfer belt is used to transfer 4-colour (CMYK) images to the paper in a single pass. The belt has to be extremely flat and smooth because it is used for transferring images, and it also has to be strong to withstand constant high-speed movement. We had previously tried to improve the functions of the intermediate transfer belt by applying a coating layer to it, but it was never completed because of the advanced level of chemical engineering involved. We realised that we could now create a remarkable new technology by combining the specialties of the two companies." The resulting belt is both stronger and more durable. In addition, the functional coating improves the secondary transfer efficiency, which raises image quality. In short, the new technology killed two birds with one stone, and will be applied to other new models in the future.

An entirely new intermediate transfer belt resulted from combining Konica and Minolta technologies.

The large colour LCD panel is the same one that is used on higher-grade models, so it will feel familiar to users.

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Rule No. 2: When a user voices

a problem, solve it.

All Konica Minolta development departments have a feedback system that tells them what users from around the world are saying about a variety of product aspects.

The developers themselves also go into the market to get opinions firsthand. Mr. Sakata made a firm resolution to reflect these comments and opinions in the C353/C253/C203. As part of this, he formed a special project, called the Downtime Reduction Project, to improve actual productivity. Here, downtime means any time that users have to wait for the machine to do something. In Mr. Sakata's own words, "Productivity. This was an area where we absolutely refused to compromise." Today, black-and-white MFPs are rapidly being replaced by colour models in offices all over the world. Toshio Sakata: "Colour MFPs require four times the number of processes as black-and-white models. On top of that, the timing of all the processes has to match. Because of this, colour machines ordinarily took more time. It's easy to imagine that users would hesitate to replace their speedy B/W machine with something slower. This meant that we had to speed up the parts that were slower than black-and-white models, and create a colour model with high productivity." The productivity of an MFP is normally expressed in terms of engine speed, using the unit ppm (prints per minute). In reality, though, this gives you a numerical value for only one aspect of productivity. Productivity in areas like data processing and scanning, which is called throughput, is an entirely different dimension than engine speed. Plus, there is another issue lurking here that is particular to colour machines: image stabilisation, which consists of steps like registration compensation and density adjustment. This area of control is essential to maintaining a high level of image quality. However, if it adds to downtime and lowers productivity in actual use, it will cause the user considerable frustration. Optimising this image stabilisation control to minimise the time it requires was a critical factor. Toshio Sakata: "We started by calling this real-life productivity, including downtime, "actual productivity" and created a new and unique index called pph (prints per hour) to measure it." Improving actual productivity turned out to be a largely uncharted area of development in which Konica Minolta led the competition in reviewing the concept of productivity itself. Toshio Sakata: "Naturally, when you're dealing with image stabilisation, you can't solve the problem by simply shortening it. So we started verifying the steps that could be used, and carefully checked the degree and timing of each step. It was definitely a trial-and-error process, but as a result, we achieved an actual productivity level that exceeds 98% and comes close to 100%, measured in pph, for both black-and-white and colour models.

Of course, this greatly improved other productivity areas as well.Takayuki Nabeshima: "We were able to raise the data-processing speed even more

than the print speed, so the throughput is way up there. Users will feel no frustration here. We've also included the same scanner as the one in models a class above, so the scan speed is higher too. This greatly increases the productivity for converting documents into electronic data."

The image-processing ASICs are also the same as those of higher-grade models, which makes the performance of their main circuit boards very similar.

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Defying common sense.

Common business sense tells us that when innovation surges, costs usually follow. The bizhub development defied that convention. Though there was an ongoing battle with

costs, the goal was to offer the same level of quality at a lower cost, meaning that more customers would have a chance to use the product. This was implicitly understood by both Mr. Sakata and Mr. Nabeshima, which made balancing costs and innovation a challenge for both men as development leaders. Toshio Sakata: "Even though our costs were lowered, we absolutely refused to lower target specifications. In fact, we worked to raise the performance with every cost reduction." An example of this can be found in duplex printing. Toshio Sakata: "Raising the productivity of 2-sided printing was one of our major development themes." Productivity was not affected by 2-sided printing in black-and-white machines, but the extra processes that were required for 2-sided colour printing ordinarily brought productivity down. Takayuki Nabeshima: "This would be a major concern for users who were replacing their black-and-white MFP for a colour model. That made it all the more important that we resolve the problem." The bottleneck was in the switchback area, where the front and back sides of the paper are switched. This wouldn't be such a big problem if there were a large space to deal with, but in a compact body, the switchback area is limited like everything else. Toshio Sakata: "One day as I was talking with another engineer, it struck me that if we were to move the location of one of the rollers we wouldn't actually need another one of the rollers at all. And without that unnecessary roller, the switchback might be faster." The drawings were immediately redone and in the end, both 100% productivity and a cost reduction were attained in one surprisingly clever move.

The Technology for 100% Productivity in Duplex Printing A newly created lever provides optimal timing for duplex exit/switching,boosting productivity in duplex printing all the way to 100%.

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More silent. More compact. And much much more.

O ne of the most common requests from users was for a quieter machine.Toshio Sakata: "We were able to reduce the operating noise, and made special

efforts to achieve greater quietness during standby. By optimising the fan's location and the shape of its exhaust duct, we raised exhaust efficiency, which let us reduce the amount of fan operation required during standby." This actually cut the total sound during standby to about 50% that of our previous models. Toshio Sakata: "This machine will find many applications in SOHO and other small offices, and since we can assume that it'll be used to replace black-and-white machines, both installation and ease of transport will come into play. Our goal was to bring the width down as far as we could to accommodate smaller offices and smaller doorways." Naturally, the ability to shave the machine dimensions down was an extremely important factor—in many cases, it would decide whether or not the machine could even be delivered. Takayuki Nabeshima: "We designed the control panel so it could be moved into a straight up-and-down position when not being used. This keeps it out of the way during transport and carrying."

Major features also include full compatibility with the top network environments and class-leading security functions.

Takayuki Nabeshima: "We also included a function for downloading ICC profiles, which was high on the list of user requests, and we were quick to support Windows Vista and to provide a USB memory function." Toshio Sakata: "User requests were very different from country to country, which made it difficult to coordinate. I wonder if it might be possible in the future to offer a customising system where users are able to choose the functions they want when they order their machine. That would be a way of satisfying everyone."

E nvironmental performance was another challenge.Toshio Sakata: "The new Blue Angel Mark (a German environmental standards

label) for 2007 included stricter conditions, both for lowering energy consumption and for resumption times from energy-saving mode. We easily cleared the resumption time standard by speeding up the temperature rise required for fixing, and by optimising the image stabilisation processes and the shift sequences from energy-saving mode to other modes. We also passed the new Energy Star standards (which are part of an international energy-saving system). Guided by our goal of reducing energy consumption, we came in way below the standard values for reducing warm-up time and cutting the power consumption in Sleep mode." The bizhub is obviously a highly ecological machine.

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Gratitude and congratulations

T oshio Sakata: "There were some tough times, but we met all of our goals, in terms of quality, cost,

and scheduling. My appreciation goes out to everyone on the team for working late when necessary, and even giving up weekends and holidays when they had to. I also realise that each one of the team members has a family, and some of them have other important personal relationships. This project wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the understanding and cooperation of all these people. In some ways, it may have been hardest on the team members' loved ones, and someday I'd really like to thank each and every one of them in person. Perhaps, if the bizhub does become the world's favourite MFP, or if we receive an award, we'll hold a party and invite everyone so that I can do just that." Takayuki Nabeshima: "I'm usually too embarrassed to say so, but I've got to admit that the one I appreciate the most for helping this project to succeed is my wife."

Congratulations go out to the team whose passion helped transform the common standalone copier

into the innovative network MFP it is today. This change will certainly be felt by the offices that employ the new black bizhub and the individuals who use it every day.