Mitsui Seiki Remains Operational Amid COVID-19 Guidelines
With the growing global and national concerns relevant to the spread of coronavirus, Mitsui Seiki relays all the actions that it has been taking since the outbreak.
At Mitsui Seiki, the health and welfare of its customers, partners, and employees is of the utmost importance. With the growing global and national concerns relevant to the spread of coronavirus, the company relayed all the actions that it has been taking since the outbreak.
At Mitsui Seiki’s Franklin Lakes, NJ, offices and at its headquarters factory just outside of Tokyo, Japan, all are following the protective recommendations suggested or ordered by international, national, and local health and governmental authorities. The NJ facility is staffed by essential personnel and is open from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm Eastern US time each day and sometimes earlier and later if necessary to accommodate factory communications and customers in the other time zones. There are also several staff members working from multiple remote, home offices.
Most of the company’s daily interaction with customers is via phone or online video calls. That open access applies to everyone at the company – from its receptionist to its chairman. The company has canceled sales-related travel for the near future until the situation resolves for everyone’s safety. Machine tool support, installations and other technical site visits to customer locations, however, continue. If the service issue can be resolved remotely via staff, technicians will attempt that mode first. If a site visit is required, such as the case of an install, everyone must follow the hygiene and social distancing rules strictly.
For customers who have purchased equipment that’s currently being built, construction continues in the factory and the subsequent run-offs are still on schedule. The company is in frequent contact with its key vendors and suppliers to ensure that schedules will be maintained, even for those machines currently on backorder, and orders being placed now. Normally, Mitsui Seiki invites customers to its factory to observe the run-offs first-hand to ensure the machine meets all specifications. However, in light of the current international travel restrictions, the company is providing test cut videos for review and feedback. Additionally, it has hired objective, third party verifiers to provide results documentation.
Although shipments from Japan to the U.S. have more than tripled in cost, the company is honoring the price as quoted to the customer’s FOB location. All of the packing materials, as is the usual protocol, are scrutinized and treated carefully for any contamination. Mitsui Seiki is also arranging to warehouse the crate for 14 days once it arrives in the U.S. before delivery to the customer’s site if desired or if required by state governing authorities.
Right now, the company is investing even more into R&D, looking several years down the road at the industry and anticipating the types of equipment and services that will be required for its customers in the next decades. During this process, the company invites the most intelligent, brilliant minds from all facets of a machining system to join in this view beyond the horizon. Its design engineers are starting to model these new configurations already.
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