The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Technical decision · 1998–2018
Canon scrapped conveyor lines in 1998 and had one worker build a whole camera in a cell
Starting at Nagahama in 1998, Canon replaced belt-conveyor mass production with cell production — one worker, one whole product — and later added robot cells.
Canon · Nagahama Canon
The solution
In the 1990s Canon made digital cameras, DSLRs and lenses on automated warehouses and long belt conveyors built for low-mix, high-volume production. As user needs diversified, Nagahama Canon — the group's production-innovation birthplace — switched to cell production in 1998, ahead of other Canon plants.
The cell method let one worker assemble a whole product, with cheap clever jigs ('chie-tech' karakuri) replacing expensive automation. Canon removed belt conveyors entirely by 1999 and cut cost and lead time sharply; rivals often outsourced to Taiwanese EMS contractors, while Canon insisted on in-house production and used the cells to raise capability.
From the late 2000s Canon added 'man-machine cells' — machines assisting people — and set full automation as the 2018 goal, with robots doing the work while people focused on improvement. The Nagahama production innovation spread to all group plants at home and abroad.
Why it worked
- One worker owning the whole product raises quality and flexibility
- Cheap clever jigs beat expensive automation for variety
- In-house production kept cost competitiveness without offshoring
- The method spread across the whole group
What can be applied
When variety grows faster than volume, a line tuned for one product is the bottleneck: reorganize work around the whole product first, then automate the new layout.
Aftermath
The Nagahama model was adopted by every Canon plant worldwide, and the group kept producing cameras in Japan while competitors outsourced. By the late 2000s man-machine cells assisted workers, and Canon targeted fully automated production by 2018.
Sources
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