Case studies

Overview: Customer Name Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad The Challenge Increase productivity Reduce paper wastage Share CAD drawings for discussion Recover clients documentation cost more effectively The Solution imageRUNNERC3200 The Results Increased color print productivity by more than 3 times Able to print A3 size documents to make discussion easier Easily convert A3 size drawings to PDF format for communication Faster processing of large print files Able to track printing cost by department
	“Thanks to the Canon solution. Ajinomoto increased printing productivity by 3 times, reduced printing cost by 200% and automated print cost management to save us tremendous time.”   Lian Ooi Cheong EDP Executive Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad

Ajinomoto’s story began with taste, when Professor Kikunae Ikeda from the University of Tokyo isolated glutamate from the seaweed and discovered its flavor enhancing properties in 1908. The next year, his discovery was introduced to the market in the form of the flavor enhancer AJI-NO-MOTO® meaning the Essence of Taste (scientifically, it is termed as Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG in short).

Today, AJI-NO-MOTO® is sold in more than 100 countries and supplies about onethird of the 1.5 million-ton global markets for monosodium glutamate.

Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad started its business operations in 1961 as AJI-NOMOTO ® monosodium glutamate producer. It is one of the very first Japanese jointventure companies to be set up in Malaysia and has since grown into a dynamic food seasoning manufacturer marketing diverse brand name that is trusted by Malaysians.

AJI-NO-MOTO® food seasoning is an indispensable item in almost every Malaysian home. Some of their popular range of products is AJI.SHIO, SERI-AJI, TUMIX, PAL SWEET, Slim Up and AJIMIX.

Ajinomoto’s marketing department often need to create packaging design for new products. Sample designs brought in by the designer need to be sent to various departments and their overseas headquarter in Japan for discussion and approval.

The marketing department also creates brochures and advertisements for new products which involve communicating with the creative agency to create suitable visuals. These A3 size color visuals need to be printed for proofing, however, the current color printers can only print A4 size.

In the planning process of expanding their manufacturing facilities, the engineers from the engineering department create different versions of drawings of the building using AutoCAD. These CAD drawings are used for discussion and approval at various stages of development. Since most users do not have AutoCAD software to open the CAD files, viewing of this document is an issue, especially so when the person is located overseas in their Japan headquarter.

Four color desktop printers currently perform color printing in Ajinomoto. Their slow speed, long repair time and frequent change of ink cartridges reduce the overall productivity of the staff. Ajinomoto also has a high-speed black and white multifunction machine and several desktop printers to serve their printing needs. Thick documents such as management’s reports, proposals and balance sheets are often printed. However, due to the low memory of their multi-function machine, processing of large documents is very slow, thus increasing the overall printing time.

To keep all the desktop printers running smoothly and allocate their printing cost, the procurement department faces a daunting task of ensuring there is sufficient print cartridges. In addition, they also need to keep track of the number of cartridges used by various departments for cost allocation and control purposes.

After evaluating the various options to improve the situation, Ajinomoto opted for Canon imageRUNNER(iR)C3200. With a printing speed of 32 pages per minute (ppm) for both black and white as well as color documents, the printing of most color documents are now diverted to the iRC3200 to drive productivity up by more than 3 times!

Now, the marketing department no longer has any problem printing A3 size packaging designs, product brochures or visuals for approval and proofing purposes.

For the engineering department, the iRC3200 facilitates the sharing of A3 size CAD drawings simply by scanning and automatically converting them to PDF documents for easy communication using email. Thus, even recipients without AutoCAD software can now view the CAD drawings!

Endowed with 768MB of RAM, the iRC3200 can process big file size easily for printing to address the bottleneck situation faced by their current high speed printer.

The iRC3200 also manages cost very efficiently. By allocating passwords for every staff, printing of color, black and white documents is controlled and monitored automatically. A detailed report specifying individual user usage can be readily generated anytime for accounting purposes. This had completely eradicated the need for the procurement department to keep track of the print cartridges used by various printers, saving them time and effort.

Best of all, printing cost declined by about 200% due to Canon’s fixed charge for every page printed. “Thanks to the Canon solution. Ajinomoto increased printing productivity by 3 times, reduced printing cost by 200% and automated our print cost management to save us tremendous time,” said Mr. Lian Ooi Cheong, EDP Executive of Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad.