Shimadzu Medical Oceania and IMDS signed a distrib

Shimadzu Medical Oceania and IMDS signed a distribution agreement in May. Absolute must read article...each CTLM sells at a retail price of $399,000 each (per CEO of IMDS). EACH AND EVERY HOSPITAL IN THE WORLD WILL NEED THE CTLM MACHINE!!! That means big international money coming in!

http://www.australianbusinessjournal.com.au/s...rporation/

Shimadzu Corporation is a US$3.3bn-turnover company with more than 10,000 employees worldwide and subsidiaries across the globe. It may not be a household name, but its technology helps Boeing aircraft to fly and plasma screens to function. Its scientific division focuses on liquid and gas chromatography products, as well as mass spectroscopy in the environmental, pharmaceutical, life science and clinical markets. The scientific R&D team includes a 2002 Nobel Prize winner (Koichi Tanaka) for work on the award-winning Shimadzu LC IT-TOF product range.

Shimadzu Medical Systems Oceania has been a standalone subsidiary in Australia since 1996, supplying general radiography, fluoroscopy and cardiovascular equipment throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Australian general manager Nick Mascoulis interacts with the international head office in Tokyo, Japan, typically three or four times a day to discuss market intelligence and new product development. “It’s a very close relationship between us, the subsidiary, and Shimadzu Japan,” he says. “This is necessary for developing products suited to the international market. We are heavily involved in giving the factory in Japan the requirements for the new products – of which Shimadzu is developing many.”

Digital upgrade

Shimadzu Medical Systems Oceania distributes Shimadzu products built in Japan – primarily static and mobile X-ray systems, including ones for the heart (cardiovascular) and digestive system (fluoroscopy) – in addition to products manufactured by Planmeca, Planmed, Canon and Konica Minolta. Shimadzu has strong relationships with these suppliers that it has nurtured since 2000, particularly in the case of Konica Minolta.

Mascoulis says Shimadzu distributes “some of the most leading products in the world”.

Planmeca makes orthopantomography (OPG) machines for 2D and 3D dentistry imaging; Planmed makes mammography machines for scanning breast tissue; and Canon and Konica Minolta make high-tech flat-panel detectors (FPDs) that produce digital X-ray images in as little as two seconds.

“FPDs make the X-ray process so much quicker than before,” says Mascoulis. “With X-ray film the process would take up to five minutes, but now you can see that same image in seconds, at a higher quality and lower X-ray dose.”

These panels are a significant marker of the shift in X-ray technology from analogue to digital, for which Shimadzu had to reposition itself in the market. It used to be a very large supplier in Australia for analogue X-ray equipment using X-ray film, but has since moved with the times to produce digital machines using FPDs in the film’s place.

“Australia has a high uptake of new technologies and the hospitals here are all going down the digital path – no one in the public sector is buying analogue now,” says Mascoulis. “The market is growing dramatically in that area and if businesses don’t change accordingly, even if they were successful in the past, they’ll go out of business. We repositioned our business because we know it’s vital to move with technology, and have invested in new infrastructure and training to handle the change.”

At the cutting edge

The Konica Minolta Aero FPD sold by Shimadzu is “unique” in being powered by an advanced Lithium Ion capacitor whose power capacity, unlike a battery, doesn’t deteriorate over time. Canon, meanwhile, offers FPDs with “stitching” technology that allows several X-ray exposures to be combined into one image, depicting a large section of a patient’s body.

FPD technology is so fast that it enables products such as the Shimadzu Flexavision F3 to display fluoroscopy images – showing the transit of swallowed contrast media through a patient’s body – in real time.

It also negates the use of image intensifiers, produces higher-quality images and, most importantly, requires a lower-intensity X-ray. This makes Shimadzu’s machines safer for patients, particularly babies and the elderly.

The company has sold a large number of fluoroscopy machines within Victoria and although they use image intensifiers, an older technology, Mascoulis says they are easily upgradeable to digital and competitively priced. Last year, Shimadzu won the tender to supply all X-ray equipment to the new Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

In addition, the company has been Queensland’s sole supplier of mobile X-ray units, both analogue and digital, for the last 10 years. “The unit can be driven around the hospital to where it’s needed,” Mascoulis explains. “So for trauma and intensive care, where the person is too sick to be taken to the radiology department, the machine can come to them.”

Thoroughly modern

It’s not only Shimadzu’s products that are at the forefront of technology, but the business itself as well.

Recently the company overhauled its entire IT infrastructure in order to improve its efficiency and modernity.

Changes included the introduction of tracking software, for monitoring its logistics and inventory; company-wide upgrade to DICOM-compliant, medical-grade Eizo monitors, which Mascoulis says “have better performance, resolution and contrast” than rival models; integration of iPads and iPhones into its daily business communications, to quickly and easily show products to customers; connection of engineers and customers online, so that machine servicing be delivered faster; and the creation of a new website, featuring downloadable brochures, data sheets and software.

Shimadzu also demonstrates modernity through its sensitivity to the environment. “We’ve changed our packaging – in the past we used bulky wooden crates and now we’re using recyclable cardboard,” Mascoulis says. “A lot of our equipment is recyclable too and we comply with IEC [International Electrotechnical Commission] and ROHS [Reduction of Hazardous Substances] standards, as required by the CE mark. We recycle the X-ray tubes, the metal and glass, and the oil we use.”

Shimadzu’s green credentials also extend to its factories, which all use solar panels (partly manufactured by the company itself) to help reduce carbon emissions. Its medical products are manufactured at a new factory built recently in Kyoto, Japan, which Mascoulis says is “very modern and very sterile for the high-end cardiac systems we manufacture”.

Continual improvement

Shimadzu’s work is highly specialised, requiring staff to be very well trained. Engineers, who install and repair products on customers’ premises, must complete a course at the Australian training centre in Sydney prior to working on any equipment. Specialist “product experts” are sent abroad for training. “We run around a dozen different courses per year and send our product experts to either Japan, for Shimadzu-specific training, or to Finland for Planmeca and Planmed training,” Mascoulis explains.

The already-large training budget may need to be increased this year as Shimadzu increases its engineers by 30 per cent, following a tripling of floor space at its Melbourne facility. The company is expanding to keep up with high demand, particularly in Victoria and New South Wales. Mascoulis claims Shimadzu has around 50 to 60 per cent Australian market share in general X-ray equipment and, bolstered by technological upgrades, there’s a good chance this figure will increase.

It’s not only Shimadzu’s Australian division that is flourishing; far from it. Shimadzu Corporation as a whole is on an upwards trajectory after making a significant change to its infrastructure. “The whole company is growing,” says Mascoulis. “Subsidiaries such as ourselves now have a lot of input in developing new products and that’s a major change for us.

“Shimadzu Corporation certainly wants to expand and become a larger player and that includes branching out into new areas.”