Ricoh UK to Partner with Ricoh France

Ricoh UK, with 900 workers in Telford, plans to work with its sister company Ricoh France, in Clamart, until July to find out whether production can be streamlined.

Tim Webber, Executive Director of Ricoh, based in Priorslee, said the company would like to enhance its employees’ awareness of market and technology changes. Ricoh aims to contribute its employment and economic good across Europe based upon the strength of these two factories. The company targets are: maintaining a strong global business; adding customer value; providing high-quality technologies; and maintaining a streamlined and efficient organization.

Webber added, “It remains agile and can quickly adapt to market and technology-led changes. As a part of an ongoing review to achieve its goals, Ricoh Telford announced an initiative to its employees.”

He also mentioned that Ricoh’s employees were informed that senior management would begin to conduct a study to see how to further standardize and safeguard the manufacturing and supply chain process in Europe. The cooperation between these two factories is a part of Ricoh’s global manufacturing and logistics strategy which is to make sure it remains at the forefront of its clients’ needs.

Besides, he said, “The study, which is in the very early stages, will look at how we can standardize the business. We are not sure how it will affect jobs or the business but we are keen to let people know what’s going on. This is an opportunity to see how the two factories, in Telford and Clamart, can be more efficient.” More information will be released in July, when the study is completed.

According to Tim Webber, the Telford factory, established in 1985, was growing in its new, machine recycling and magazine printing businesses. However, there was a decline in its office machine manufacturing operations.