Supply Chain Management

Designing

The Ricoh Group’s design and development process is integrated with our supply chain to fulfill increasingly diverse customer needs while raising development efficiency and lowering product costs. We have innovated our entire design process from procurement to recovery and recycling.

Platform- & Module-type Development

Our Platform- & Module-type Development System uses modules with flexible specifications in the creation of new products.
By minimizing the need for new modules to upgrade product specifications, the system leads to improved quality while making design work more efficient. It also lets Ricoh channel resources to create highly advanced new technology and to plan several generations in advance for the inclusion of recycled components in new models.

ΣE System reduces total parts by more than 90%

ΣE System

The ΣE System, developed from 1996 to 2006, makes the selection of electronic parts more efficient, lowers procurement costs and shrinks inventories. It has helped us cut the number of discrete parts used in Ricoh products from 35,000 to just 3,000. Parts that are registered in the ΣE System database have their QCDE (quality, cost, delivery, ecology) certified by a group of specialists and are cleared for use by Ricoh engineers. The system accelerates parts selection in the upstream phase of the design process, ensures quality and reduces procurement costs and inventories.