Strengthening the Aftermarket Service Business in the North America Market
Zef Scientific Inc. Newly Joins the Shimadzu Group in the United States
In April 2023, Shimadzu Corporation began a 3-year medium-term management plan based on the basic policy “Be an innovative company that solves social issues with global partners.” That plan identifies pharmaceutical companies in North America as a significant market and specifies promoting joint research and joint development partnerships with researchers or other customers who have advanced liquid chromatograph (LC) or mass spectrometer (MS) technologies. In April 2024, in addition to establishing new R&D centers in North America, we added Zef Scientific Inc. to the Shimadzu Group due to its strong reputation in the market for providing aftermarket services to pharmaceutical companies.
Strengthening R&D Capabilities: Establishment of North America R&D Centers
R&D Center at Head Office in Maryland (in SSI head office building)
In April 2024, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments Inc. (SSI), which is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and is responsible for coordinating Shimadzu analytical and measuring instruments businesses in the United States, established three R&D centers in North America. The locations of the three centers, at the SSI head office in Maryland, the East Coast, and the West Coast, were determined to primarily target the pharmaceuticals and clinical markets. Those R&D centers will be used to accurately identify the needs of customers and strengthen Shimadzu’s R&D capabilities in the North America market, which is currently thriving with advanced technologies and facility investment.
The Shimadzu Group plans to use the SSI locations to expand the business for pharmaceutical companies and increase net sales in North America from 51 billion yen in FY 2022 to 70 billion yen in FY 2025.
Strengthening the Aftermarket Service Business: Zef Scientific Inc. Joins the Shimadzu Group
In the same month that the North America R&D Centers were established, SSI also added Zef Scientific Inc. (ZefSci) to the Shimadzu Group as a subsidiary. ZefSci (based in Orange County, California) offers analytical instrument maintenance services in North America.
From the left is Yoshiaki Maeda, President of SSI, Z. El Fallah, founder and President of Zef Scientific Inc., and Masami Tomita, General Manager, Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division, Shimadzu Corporation
Aftermarket services, such as replacing consumables, performance check and repairing, are essential for analytical instruments after installation. Due to the increasingly strict quality control requirements in the pharmaceutical industry, it is very important to manage instruments efficiently. Consequently, there is increasing demand in the pharmaceutical industry for providing aftermarket services for all brands of analytical instruments, referred to as multi-vendor services (MVS).
ZefSci has established a strong reputation in the market of aftermarket services for pharmaceutical companies as a dedicated MVS provider for LC and LC-MS systems. Therefore, ZefSci engineers are able to perform maintenance for instruments made by a wide range of manufacturers. ZefSci services will be offered to SSI customers to help improve instrument management efficiency and ensure quality.
The Three Locations Operated by ZefSci
ZefSci was established in the United States in 2005 by Z. El Fallah and others. Later, offices were also established in Canada and Morocco, resulting in about 90 employees working at the three locations today.
Head Office in the United States: Location for Creation and Logistics
The U.S. head office is located in Lake Forest, California. To satisfy the growing demand for services, specialized laboratory space was expanded for instrument maintenance training, equipment repairs, and component testing. The head office also serves as ZefSci’s logistics center for satisfying the needs of all customers and engineers in the United States and Canada.
Montreal Office: Location for Shimadzu Instrument Sales, Providing MVS, and for IT, Quality Assurance, and Human Resource Functions
The Montreal office sells equipment and parts to customers in Canada. It oversees IT, quality assurance, and human resource functions for all ZefSci operations. The office also includes the “Shimadzu Demo”, a facility that allows customers to experience using Shimadzu’s latest LC and LC-MS products.
Morocco Office: Door-Opener for Newly Emerging Markets
The Morocco office is in charge of accounting and management functions for all ZefSci and helps ensure engineers can quickly obtain service parts. Significant growth is anticipated during the next several years in markets for food safety/residual pesticide analysis and environmental testing.
Comments by Takeshi Tomura, Executive Vice-President of ZefSci
Despite being a small company with only 90 employees, ZefSci is deploying business in the United States, Canada, and Morocco by dividing functional duties globally. Employees are very internationally diverse, with not only employees rooted in the three operating locations but also employees with roots in Taiwan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, India, Russia, Armenia, Albania, Palestine, and France.
With engineers scattered across North America, it is very impressive to see how they coordinate the time-zone differences between the three operating locations, are understanding of differences in each other’s skills, and mutually help each other. ZefSci is also using Shimadzu instrument training sessions, regular meetings, and other interactions to build capabilities for working cooperatively with SSI and exchange specific information to expand business results.
In January, we plan to start training SSI engineers on servicing non-Shimadzu instruments. In addition, we will establish capabilities for working cooperatively with Shimadzu Middle East & Africa FZE to help expand sales in Morocco. Though we are small, as demand for one-stop MVS providers continues to expand in North America, we are united in our commitment to achieving growth by offering spectacular LCMS-specific services that stand out among the throng of large competitors and equity funds.
Vice-President Tomura is shown third from the left in the front row
関連リンク
- Zef Scientific Inc.
- Acquired Zef Scientific Inc., a US analytical equipment maintenance and services company Strengthen after-sales services in North America | News & Notices
- Three R&D Centers Opened in the United States｜SHIMADZU TODAY
- Shimadzu Middle East & Africa Opens a New Facility in Dubai, UAE! Aiming for Further Commitment to the Region ｜SHIMADZU TODAY
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