"When we first started, steel fabrication was our main business. We handled large, one-off items like control panels or turbines used in power plants. We took on orders that would take several months to produce once received."

Subsequently, the surge in crude oil prices due to the oil crisis significantly impacted the aluminum smelting industry, and this effect spread to the aluminum processing industry.
Consequently, Fukui Aluminum Kogyo Co., Ltd. began undertaking steel frame construction work as well.

"Handling steel frames led to an increase in construction-related work. This was the catalyst for our shift from steel fabrication to aluminum building materials."

From there, we further developed our technology and system, enabling us to provide integrated services from design, manufacturing, and construction to after-sales care.

Furthermore, we undertake highly challenging manufacturing projects that other companies have deemed too difficult and refused.

"We can't compete with major companies in mass production. The attitude of 'just trying it,' even with difficult projects, has been inherited since our founding."

Fukui Aluminum Kogyo Co., Ltd. has established an operational system that allows for integrated services from design to after-sales support.
It is likely that few companies of Fukui Aluminum Kogyo Co., Ltd.'s business scale employ dedicated designers.

"Our company doesn't have employees specialized in design; they are sales staff who also handle design. This helps us keep personnel costs down. And because they handle both sales and design, customer requests can be directly reflected in the drawings."

Since customer requests are drawn up in-house, we can clearly determine which parts of the components to be manufactured are critical, where precision is required, or conversely, where high precision is not as necessary.

By sharing this information with the manufacturing floor, we can respond to even difficult requests.

It is said that we started employing these sales-cum-design staff about 30 years ago.
Because we were able to quickly establish this system, we became able to smoothly accept orders from outside the prefecture.

Since the sales staff, who serve as the customer contact, can also design, we can eliminate communication time loss and create highly accurate drawings, even for remote transactions.

"To keep costs down and make a product viable, planning accounts for 80%. Even with difficult orders, we can succeed by thoroughly planning bending and welding from the initial stages."

It is the employees on the manufacturing floor who give shape to the drawings that reflect customer requests, created in this manner.

On the floor, consistent quality is maintained by assigning tasks according to each employee's skills.

"This division of labor is also a double-edged sword. Assigning preferred processes leads to good processing, but it also leads to over-reliance on individuals. However, it takes over 10 years to master all processing techniques. Developing engineers to reduce this over-reliance on individuals is a future challenge."