By Ed Avis
All business people know that networking pays off. For a group of fortunate American reprographics professionals, networking at the SGIA show two years ago paid off with a visit to Japan last month.
The story began when Kevin Howes, executive director of RSA, visited the Epson booth at SGIA in New Orleans in 2018.
“I was having a discussion with the Epson wide-format guys and they pointed out
Epson's First Electronic Printer
these workforce enterprise units in another part of the booth,” Howes remembers. “I was coincidentally searching for a new A3 solution for our member base, and these seemed to meet our members’ needs.”
Howes met the Epson management team, and after a series of meetings with them and Synnex, their distributor partner, RSA launched a program in late December 2018 to provide the Epson 100-page, 75-page and 24-page-per-minute A3 solutions to dealers.
“We stressed to Epson the importance of having a scalable half-size solution on 12x18 paper, and that’s been very popular,” Howes says. “Especially in small offices and construction trailers where space is at a premium, you can run just on a cut sheet. You don’t need 12-inch rolls or the rest. It’s been a very efficient and tidy solution for A3 printing.”
Synnex also helped RMX Network and other groups access the Epson printers, and before long Epson decided it would pay off to bring a group to Japan for a tour of their facilities and some wining and dining.
“They wanted to do a VIP tour for the key dealer members and potential members, to show the factory and gather some North American market feedback,” Howes says.
Thirty Americans, including 20 equipment dealers, made the trip, which ran from October 29 to November 2. Among the attendees were Howes; Rick Bosworth, executive director of RMX Network; Dan Gabrich from BluEdge; Bruce Franz of Franz Reprographics; Kara Stager from Print-O-Stat; Tony Westbrook from Coastal Reprographics; and Michael O’Keefe from R.S. Knapp.
The group enjoyed a number of fancy meals and VIP treatment throughout, but perhaps the most valuable experience was having access to top Epson executives, including President and CEO Minoru Usui. The Americans provided a lot of feedback to the executives about their needs and desires in a printer, Howes says.
The trip included a visit to Epson’s factory in Nagano, about three hours west of Tokyo. There everyone put on “bunny suits” to prevent contamination and saw how precisely the Epson printers are built. They also spent time in Epson’s PaperLab, which recycles paper using a highly water-efficient process, and they toured the robot-operated print cartridge assembly facility.
After the official tours, many members of the group visited a castle and a special museum called TeamLab, which uses Epson projection equipment to create digital media exhibits.
“I was very grateful to have participated in the trip,” Howes says. “I see Epson as a key technology partner in the reprographic industry. I was completely impressed with their manufacturing.”