1-7, Yukigaya-Otsuka-Cho Ota-ku
Tokyo
145
Japan
History of Alps Electric Co., Ltd.
Alps is one of the largest electronics companies in the world; it is, among other things, the world's largest manufacturer of floppy disk drives. Alps produces tens of thousands of different parts and components for manufacturers as diverse as Honda, General Motors, Goldstar, Matsushita, and Hitachi.
As one of the few secondary manufacturers to remain independent of client companies and other industrial groups, Alps is an oddity in Japanese industry. In order to maintain this independence, the company has had to avoid a "vertical" diversification. Instead of moving from parts manufacturing to finished products, which would have put Alps squarely in competition with its clients, the company expanded "horizontally," developing a wider and more sophisticated array of components and preserving harmony with its customers.
Alps's customers are some of the largest companies in the world; these companies could certainly establish their own parts manufacturing subsidiaries. The fact that they haven't tried to replace Alps testifies to the company's many strengths. It need only be concerned with a very narrow function, and it can benefit from greater economies of scale by selling the same product to several different customers.
The man behind Alps Electric is Katsutaro Kataoka, a self-styled industrial revolutionary in the mold of Sony's Akio Morita. A displaced war veteran and mechanical engineer, Kataoka worked briefly for Toshiba. He was uncomfortable working for a large firm, so he left Toshiba, borrowed $1,400 from his family, and set up a small manufacturing shop in Ohta, a drab industrial suburb of Tokyo. The company opened for business in November, 1948 as the Kataoka Electric Company.
Kataoka's original product line consisted of an unimpressive variety of simple-technology components such as light switches and variable capacitors. He peddled these items to a number of larger manufacturers, offering a reliable product at low unit costs. The company's business grew steadily during the 1950s, but while its volume increased, its technology changed very little.
But as the products manufactured by Kataoka's customers became more complex, these customers began to pressure Kataoka to develop a wider variety of more durable, high-quality parts. Kataoka began investing more heavily in research and development and expanded its operations with new factories. A subsidiary, Tohoku Alps, was established in August of 1964, and the following December Kataoka Electric changed its name to the more English-sounding Alps.
Alps Electric began a period of unprecedented growth during the mid-1960s as the Japanese consumer electronics industry took off. Alps components were incorporated into thousands of products, and it established significant market shares in new sectors, such as radio tuners. A technical agreement with General Instrument in 1963 led to Alps's acquisition of UHF television tuner technology; today Alps is the world's leader in TV tuner manufacturing. Eager to capitalize on its profitability and take advantage of promising markets, Alps entered into an agreement to produce car radios with Motorola in 1967. The venture was moderately successful, and it gave Alps a chance to learn about many new technologies developed by Motorola. Alps also established joint ventures with local manufacturers in developing countries, including India (1964), Taiwan (1970), and South Korea (1970).
By 1970 the company was the largest independent component manufacturer in Japan, but it was unable to win the respect usually accorded a company of its size. Because it was limited to producing components, and therefore a captive of its customers' business, analysts and industrialists considered Alps a secondary company, regardless of its sales volume.
In fact, it was Alps and secondary manufacturers like it that made Japan's export-led boom in electronics possible on such a scale. Their billions of simple pieces, produced at very low cost, were essential to final manufacturers. Alps was constantly motivated to maintain its high quality and low prices by the unspoken threat that its customers could find other suppliers.
During the 1970s, Alps established subsidiaries and joint venture companies in the United States, Brazil, and West Germany. It operated a joint venture to produce semiconductors with Motorola from 1973 to 1975, and in 1978 took over Motorola's share of the car stereo venture, changing its name to Alpine Electronics. Alpine subsequently introduced a line of successful upmarket radios under its own name for Honda, BMW, Volvo, Chrysler, and GM.
When exchange rates have depressed the sale of Japanese electronic goods in foreign markets, final manufacturers have often protected their profit margins by demanding lower prices from suppliers such as Alps. While these suppliers were in many cases powerless to argue, Alps began to seize the initiative on several fronts. It began to develop special components, such as automobile electronics devices and to contribute to research on new end-products. No longer just a supplier but now an active participant in the design process, Alps is not in a position to have its prices dictated by its customers anymore.
The company's graduation to a higher position in Japanese industry had an immediate effect on its business. Alps developed computer keyboards for IBM and Apple, and later took over Apple's keyboard and "mouse" plant in Garden Grove, California. Alps began to produce floppy disk drives in 1980 and steadily built market share; its customers include IBM, Apple, and Commodore. By 1985 it was the world's largest producer of floppy disk drives.
That year the company decided to try to exploit certain sectors of the market as a primary manufacturer. The computer market slumped during 1987, however, and the company was compelled to take losses in most of its computer-related product lines.
Alps intends to reduce its reliance on secondary manufacturing gradually, but for now, its major products are still secondary: switches (23% of sales), floppy disk drives and printers (21%), car audio sets (19%), and VCR parts, including magnetic heads and cylinders (14%).
As a supplier, Alps has many strengths. The company's main plants are located in a rural area of northern Honshu. It has little trouble finding more plant space near existing facilities, and has access to cheaper labor. It makes great use of subcontractors, particularly in labor-intensive and marginally profitable processes. Assembly lines are being automated, as are the warehouses. Alps is likely to retain these advantages for many years; they will bolster the company's sales while it undertakes the difficult task of establishing itself as a primary manufacturer under the energetic leadership of its president, Masataka Katoaka.
Principal Subsidiaries: Tohoku Alps Co., Ltd.; Alpine Electronics Inc.; Alpine Electronics Manufacturing of America, Inc. (U.S.A.); Alps Electric (U.S.A.) Inc. (U.S.A.); Alpine Electronics of America, Inc. (U.S.A.)
Related information about Alps
Principal mountain range of Europe, covering
259 000 kmツイ/100 000 sq mi in Switzerland,
France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia,
and Serbia and Montenegro; a series of parallel chains over
1000 km/600 mi SW窶哲E; originally formed by collision of
African and European tectonic plates; source of many great European
rivers, notably the Rhine, Po, and Rhテエne; Western Alps
(highest peaks in parentheses) consist of (1)
Alpes-Maritimes (Cima Sud Argentera
3297 m/10 817 ft); (2) Alpes Cottiennes or
Cottian Alps (Monte Viso 3851 m/12 634 ft);
(3) Alpes Dauphine (Barre des Ecrins
4101 m/13 455 ft); (4) Alpes Graian or
Graian Alps (Gran Paradiso 4061 m/13 323 ft);
Middle Alps consist of (1) Alpi Pennine (Mont Blanc
4807 m/15 771 ft, highest peak in the range;
Matterhorn 4477 m/14 688 ft); (2) Alpi
Lepontine (3553 m/11 657 ft); (3) Alpi
Retiche or Rhaetian Alps (Piz Bernina
4049 m/13 284 ft); (4) Berner Alpen or
Bernese Alps (Finsteraarhorn
4274 m/14 022 ft); (5) Alpi Orobie; (6)
テ釦ztaler Alpen (Wildspitze 3774 m/12 382 ft);
(7) Dolomiti or Dolomites (Marmolada
3342 m/10 964 ft); (8) Lechtaler Alpen
(3038 m/9967 ft); Eastern Alps: (1) Zillertaler
Alpen or Alpi Aurine (3510 m/11 516 ft);
(2) Kitzbテシhler Alpen (2559 m/8396 ft); (3)
Karnische Alpen or Carnic Alps
(2781 m/9124 ft); (4) Julijske Alpe or Julian
Alps (Triglav 2863 m/9393 ft); (5) Hohe Tauern
or Noric Alps (Grossglockner
3797 m/12 457 ft); (6) Niedere Tauern
(2863 m/9393 ft); notable passes include the Mont Cenis,
St Bernard (Little and Greater), Gemmi, Simplon, St Gotthard,
Splugen, Stilfserjoch (Stelvio), and Brenner; railway tunnels at
Col de Frテゥjus, Lotschberg, Simplon, and St Gotthard; summer pasture
on many lower slopes; major tourist region, with highly developed
facilities; mountaineering and skiing; towns have manufactures
concerned with native and imported products such as textiles,
clocks, chocolate, wooden goods; in 1911 Karl Blodig was the first
to climb all peaks over 4000 m (13 000 ft).
) is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of
Europe, stretching from
Austria and Slovenia in the east, through
Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west. The word
"Alps" was taken via French from Latin Alpes (meaning "the Alps"), which may be
influenced by the Latin words albus (white) or altus
(high), or a Celtic word.
The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc at 4,808 m on the French-Italian border. All the main peaks
of the Alps can be found in the list of
mountains of the Alps and list of
Alpine peaks by prominence.
Geography
Subdivision
The Alps are generally divided into the Western Alps and the
Eastern Alps. The
division is along the line between Lake Constance and Lake Como, following the Rhine. they are located in Italy, France and Switzerland. The Eastern Alps (main ridge system elongated and broad)
belong to Austria,
Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland. The highest
peak in the Eastern Alps is Piz Bernina, 4052 meters.
The Eastern Alps are commonly subdivided according to the
different lithology
(rock composition) of the more central parts of the Alps and the
groups at its northern and southern fringes:
- Flysch zone (from
the Wienerwald to
Bregenzerwald).
geologically, however, they do.
- Northern Limestone Alps, peaks up to 3000 m
- Central
Eastern Alps (Austria, Switzerland), peaks up to 4050
m
- Southern Limestone Alps.
The border between the Central Alps and the Southern Limestone
Alps is the Periadriatic Seam. The Northern Limestone Alps are
separated from the Central Eastern Alps by the Grauwacken
Zone.
The Western Alps are commonly subdivided with respect to
geography:
- Ligurian
Alps
- Maritime
Alps
- Cottian
Alps
- Dauphinテゥ
Alps
- Graian
Alps
- Pennine
Alps
- Bernese
Alps
- Lepontine
Alps
- Glarus
Alps
- North-Eastern Swiss Alps.
Series of lower mountain ranges run parallel to the main chains
of the Alps, including the French Prealps. (See Alpine
geography.)
The geologic subdivision is different and makes no difference
between the Western and Eastern Alps: Helveticum in the
north, Penninicum and Austroalpine
system in the centre and south of the Periadriatic seam the
Southern
Alpine system and parts of the Dinarides (see Alpine
Geology).
Main chains
The "main chain of the Alps" follows the watershed from the
Mediterranean
Sea to the Wienerwald, passing over many of the highest and most
famous peaks in the Alps. they have been traversed for war and commerce, and later by pilgrims, students and tourists.
Climate
The climate of the Alps is the climate, or average weather conditions over a long time, of the
central Alpine region of Europe. As we rise from sea level into the upper regions of the atmosphere, the
temperature decreases. The
effect of mountain
chains on prevailing winds
is to carry warm air belonging to the lower region into an upper
zone, where it expands in volume at the cost of a proportionate loss of heat, often accompanied by the
precipitation of moisture in the form of snow or rain.
Geology
The Alps arose as a result of the pressure exerted on sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin as its
Mesozoic and early
Cenozoic strata were pushed against the
stable Eurasian landmass
by the northward-moving African landmass. The pressure formed great recumbent
folds, or nappes, that rose out of what had become the
Tethys Sea and pushed
northward, often breaking and sliding one over the other to form
gigantic thrust faults. Crystalline rocks, which are exposed in the higher
central regions, are the rocks forming Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the Pennine Alps and
Hohe Tauern.
The landscape seen
today is mostly formed by glaciation during the past two million years.
Political history
Little is known of the early dwellers in the Alps, save from the
scanty accounts preserved by Roman and Greek historians and geographers. A few details have come down to us of the
conquest of many of the Alpine tribes by Augustus.
The successive emigration and occupation of the Alpine region by
various Teutonic
tribes from the 5th to the 6th centuries are known only in outline, because to
them, as to the Frankish kings and emperors, the Alps offered a route to
other places rather than a permanent residence.
It is not until the final breakup of the Carolingian Empire in
the 10th and
11th centuries that
it becomes possible to trace out the local history of the Alps. de
Saussure (1740-1799) in the Pennine Alps, and the Benedictine monk of Disentis, Placidus a Spescha
(1752-1833), most of whose ascents were made before 1806, in the
valleys at the sources of the Rhine. oak,
beech, ash and sycamore maple. In the
Alps, several species of flowering plants have been recorded above
4,000 m, including Ranunculus glacialis, Androsace alpina
and Saxifraga
biflora.
Image:Kosodrzewina (Sosna gテウrska) Pinus mugo mugo.jpg|mountain
pine
(Pinus
mugo)
Image:Rhododendron ferrugineum.JPG|rusty-leaved Alpenrose
(Rhododendron ferrugineum)
Image:Leontopodium alpinum1.jpg|Edelweiss
(Leontopodium
alpinum)
Image:Gentiana acaulis.jpg|stemless gentian
(Gentiana
acaulis)
Image:Chamorchis_alpina_230705b.jpg|Alpine dwarf orchid
(Chamorchis
alpina)
Image:Pulsatilla_alpina_schneebergensis.jpg|Alpine
pasque-flower
(Pulsatilla
alpina)
Image:Androsace alpina02.jpg|Alpine rock-jasmine (Androsace
alpina)
Image:Ranunculus_glacialis.jpg|glacier buttercup
(Ranunculus
glacialis)
Fauna
Species common
to the Alps.
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