Komori Corporation (Sumida-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Satoshi Mochida) is pleased to announce the completion of the third renewal of the Komori Graphic Technology Center (KGC) in the Tsukuba Plant in October 2024, and the start of operations as a virtual smart factory for printing plants (KGC Smart Factory).

                                                                      KGC Smart Factory reopens after renovation

The printing industry is facing diversifying needs, including small lots and short delivery times as well as increasing material and energy costs and challenges in securing human resources. In this environment, flexible responses and changes are required to ensure stable profitability and contribute to a sustainable society.

Komori believes that promoting the smart factory, which improves not only the productivity of individual machines but also the overall productivity of printing plants, is key to transforming the industry.

Defining Komori's purpose as Delivering Kando “beyond expectations” by contributing to society with print technology, in October 2024 Komori completed the third renewal of KGC, which is responsible for research and development, demonstrations, and education on print technology, and opened the KGC Smart Factory as a virtual smart factory for printing plants.

The KGC Smart Factory is equipped with a central control room that tracks the progress of all printing processes in real time on multiple large monitors. Komori’s Manufacturing Execution System (MES) KP-Connect Pro enables scheduling and real-time collection of progress information across all processes, allowing factory managers to centrally monitor and issue instructions for the entire plant from the central control room.