PLATTSBURGH — Fujitsu Frontech North America offered an inside look at the recently expanded Plattsburgh Manufacturing and Integration Center earlier this week.
One tour was led by Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Dick Zarski. He started at one of the assembly lines where point-of-sale terminals are built.
"This part of the facility was a warehouse three months ago," he said.
The exterior casings come from local vendors, Zarski said. Interior components built to customer specifications are installed at different stations along the line.
The change dispensers are manufactured at Fujitsu locations in Japan, he said. They are used in more than point-of-sale equipment.
"They are probably in 80 percent of ATMs worldwide," Zarski said.
Units undergo quality-assurance inspections during every step of the assembly process, he said.
Once finished, the equipment gets a final quality-assurance inspection. It then is placed under a camera array that photographs it from every angle, so the customer can see what it looked like when it was shipped.
Each customer has different system needs. The equipment needs to be programmed for things like the correct time zone, tax rates and Internet provider.
Zarski said the units are built to be in "plug-n-play" fashion.
"We have it exactly ready for them to use," he said.
The finished product is then packaged and made ready for shipment.
Workers were building mini-bagging carousels for Price Chopper. Some of the units built there were being installed at the Plattsburgh store Wednesday.
The Price Chopper equipment also has an automatic weighing system. It compares that weight to the programmed product weight for security purposes.
Fujitsu Frontech has teams that work with their freight carriers to ensure exact delivery times. The customers often shut down to remove their old units and install the new ones, so prompt delivery is crucial.
Some customers want a combination of Fujitsu Frontech and competitors' components, the integration side of the facility.
Employees were working on those types of units for H&M. That includes configuring hardware in the staging area.
Zarski said the company uses identical units at its worldwide locations.
Fujitsu Frontech follows the Toyota Production System, one of numerous lean manufacturing processes that are increasingly popular worldwide. Zarski said, as one example, components are now kept at the level where the work will be performed, so the worker doesn't have to pick them up.
Fujitsu Frontech has a 30,000-square-foot warehouse nearby for in-bound material. Components arrive from there in a just-in-time basis for that day's work, with parts for each step delivered in kits for that station of the assembly process.
The high-efficiency production system means customers can place an order and take delivery of units built to their exact specifications within two weeks, Zarski said.
The company manufactures point-of-sale equipment for a wide range of companies such as Kroger, Price-Chopper, Limited Brands (the parent company of Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works and Gap), Regal entertainment, Dress Barn, Staples and more. Representatives from the various companies are in and out of the facility all the time, Zarski said,
The facility currently produces two families of self-check-out units and three of point-of-sales units. Zarski said work on an assembly line for a fourth line of point-of-sale terminals that will be introduced early next year is underway.
Fujitsu Frontech has manufactured self-service checkout systems in Plattsburgh since 2004 when it acquired Optimal Robotics.
The decision in April to consolidate its point-of-sale equipment manufacturing and supply-chain systems in Plattsburgh led to the hiring of about 50 new employees.
Fujitsu is committed to the environment. The Plattsburgh plant is able to recycle 97 percent of its waste.
Parent company Fujitsu has been in business for 75 years, including more than 30 years in North America. It is based in Tokyo and has locations in 70 countries.
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