Fujifilm joins MPMA
Kevin Jenner, Fujifilm business manager (far left) and members of the Fujifilm team with MPMA’s Matt Sykes (third left), technical liaison manager and William Boyd (second right), director and chief executive.
Fujifilm has joined the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association as a member.
Speaking during a visit to the company’s UK production facility this month, William Boyd, MPMA CEO said: “We’re delighted to welcome Fujifilm into our Association and we really look forward to helping the company become integrated within the relevant MPMA working groups and industry events.
“It’s exciting to see organisations wanting to join from outside of our traditional can-making roots and based on what we’ve seen today, there is so much we can learn from industries that are associated with metal packaging members such as inks, coatings and tooling.”
Fujifilm has a global presence across multiple industrial segments with a clear focus on innovation. The core business of its plant in Broadstairs, Kent, is to manufacture screen and digital inkjet printing inks, and develop industrial digital print systems.
William Boyd and MPMA’s technical liaison manager, Matt Sykes, were invited to visit the Broadstairs facility, which included an in-depth demonstration and evaluation of Fujifilm’s fully automated UV inkjet press for metal sheet production.
Matt Sykes said: “Having been actively involved in the introduction of Digital Print into the metal packaging sector over ten years ago and understanding the technical constraints at that time, I’m encouraged to see how close digital print now is to traditional litho print quality.”
During the visit, the pair were given an insight into Fujifilm’s Continuous Improvement (CI) process which runs throughout the business and is driven ultimately by the employees.
Gary Burgess, the production plant manager said: “CI sits at the heart of everything we do and its success is ultimately down to our employees owning and operating the process. Last year, ideas from our employees generated improvement efficiency savings of over £100,000.”
Fujifilm hosts a number of ‘open’ site visits for organisations with a keen interest in learning more about Continuous Improvement. They have offered to host a specific MPMA Members CI event at Broadstairs in either May or June 2019. Any member who would like to attend the day, should contact Matt Sykes for more information at: [email protected]