TOKYO, January 9, 2020 – Ricoh today announced the start of operation of the new manufacturing organization, “Ricoh Manufacturing (China) Ltd.” in April 2020.

This company was established as part of Ricoh's strategy to strengthen its global production capability. As a central production site for Ricoh's office printing machines, it will also contribute to further enhancing our accuracy of production planning by using advanced analytics of sales and production data through the IoT (Internet of Things), and installing cutting-edge robots and factory automation to enhance our manufacturing process. Additionally, by unifying production data and data from the office machines operating at our customer's locations, we will also be able to further enhance the machines' quality. Furthermore, Ricoh Group's environmental cutting-edge factory works to reduce CO2, by leveraging solar powered equipment, replacement ventilation and air conditioning systems, natural lighting and natural ventilation to support a decarbonized society. CERTIFICATION OF GREEN BUILDING DESIGN LABEL “3 stars”, the highest level of the certification”, scheduled to be obtained in April 2020.

With the start of production at the new manufacturing organization, existing production sites in China will be reorganized. Production at Ricoh Asia Industry (Shenzhen) Ltd. will end in the spring of 2020 and production at Ricoh Components & Products (Shenzhen) Ltd. will end in the fall of 2020.

Through this reorganization of production sites, we will accelerate the construction of next-generation systems that leverage digital technology in a global production system. In addition, we will strengthen parallel production of flagship multifunction devices in cooperation with Ricoh Manufacturing (Thailand) Ltd. Rayong Province. This is a centralized mass production site in the Asian region which supports the construction of optimal supply chains to meet customer needs. We will build a system that can quickly respond to, and strengthen the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to respond to various risks.