Ren Zhijia
Engineer, Global New Product Development Dept.
Global Air Power Group
I currently work in the Control Development and Design Department of the Global New Product Development Department, which was established in 2022. I am involved in the development of control software for small, medium, and large-sized industrial air compressors for use in Japan and other countries. I'm also engaged in joint development across multiple manufacturing facilities.
We have three compressor development and manufacturing bases in Japan, one in the U.S., and two in China, and are currently working with Hitachi Global Air Power (formerly Sullair, LLC) to develop control software for large compressors in the 280-450 kW range for the North American market. Specifically, we are leading the control development teams in Japan and the U.S. with respect to the creation of functional specifications, software development, functional testing on integrated boards, and compressor testing.
As a developer of control software for air compressors, I consider it my mission to develop energy-saving controls that use a limited number of sensors to derive optimal operating conditions based on compressed air usage. For 15 years, I have worked to improve the energy-saving performance of various compressed air products.
In addition, starting in 2017, cloud monitoring services have become a standard part of our products, allowing a vast amount of air compressor operating data to be stored in the cloud. We intend to make effective use of this data in the future to realize predictive diagnosis of malfunctions and other problems, as well as new after-sales services.
In 10 years, I believe our air compressor business will be in the top two in terms of global market share.
The current Japanese air compressor market is already saturated, and for further growth, it is essential to expand sales in global markets. On the other hand, there are many challenges to overcome in developing products for global markets, such as regional ways of thinking, culture, historical backgrounds, and language barriers.
The Global New Product Development Dept. was created to work across multiple bases to overcome these challenges. I hope that our best performance will enable us to work closely with our development bases to achieve a more open product development process to expand our air compressors in the global market.
* As of July 2023
