is a Japan-based direct sales organization that develops and manufactures equipment for factory automation, sensors, measuring instruments, vision systems, barcode readers, laser markers and digital microscopes. Keyence is fablessalthough it is a manufacturer; it specializes solely in product planning and development and does not manufacture the final products. Keyence products are manufactured at qualified contract manufacturing companies.

Operations

Keyence Corporation is a global company with a network of 16 international organizations that specializes in factory

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

. Keyence Corporation earns over in yearly sales and employs more than 8,300 employees worldwide. As a direct sales company, Keyence salespeople visit customers on site with demonstration cases to show products live. Keyence's range of products are part of the

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

and research processes in a variety of industries, including the

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

, automotive, food and packaging,

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

, and

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

industries.

Products

Keyence is a

fabless manufacturing Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their Semiconductor fabrication, fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a Foundry (electronics), semiconductor found ...

company that sells a broad range of products, from the photoelectric sensor and proximity sensors to measuring instruments for inspection lines to high precision microscopes used in research institutes. These products are used by more than 300,000 customers globally. Products are shipped from Keyence's warehouses in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, or from 148 agents in 31 countries.

Company culture and reputation

Keyence Japan is consistently listed in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun's yearly ranking of the "Top Ten Most Excellent Companies in Japan." The company maintains a strong ROE (12.32%) and a conservative equity ratio (95.54%), and it is also known as one of the top companies in Japan in terms of salaries; the average annual salary for full-time employees (average age: 35.8 years old) in FY2022 being (). A 350-million-year-old ammonite fossil is displayed at the entrance of the Japanese headquarters; other fossils of long-dead creatures line the corridors and meeting rooms. Relics are supposed to convey the company’s culture: Develop new products regularly, or go out of business.

Outstanding Structure Award2000

In 2000 the headquarters building was awarded the Outstanding Structure Award by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering in recognition of the most remarkable, innovative, creative or otherwise stimulating structure.

References

{{Authority control 1974 establishments in Japan Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Electronics companies established in 1974 Electronics companies of Japan Japanese brands Manufacturing companies based in Osaka