YOKOGAWA IS strengthening its worldwide Industrial Automation (IA) business as it spearheads its ambitious strategy to become a global leader within three years.
A key component of Yokogawa’s global success is the dramatic increase in business in the highly competitive IA market of the Middle East underpinned by its leadership in measurement, control and information systems.
Yokogawa established its Middle East headquarters at Bahrain in 1990 to facilitate easy access to the growing network of sales, engineering and service facilities throughout the region.
Yokogawa Middle East (YME) has continued to strengthen its service and sales activities to meet increasing demand from the fast growing markets of the GCC states and the wider Middle East.
Significantly, YME became one of the regional headquarters and a key worldwide facility for global Yokogawa in early 2006 reflecting the growing importance of the Middle East.
YME is now aligned with its European, American and South East Asian counterparts as a global facility in order to enhance and increase the scale and range of IA solutions provided on a local basis throughout the Middle East.
The Yokogawa name has stood for quality, reliability and innovation for almost a century with a deeply rooted commitment firmly embedded in YME and its subsidiaries.
According to a spokesman for YME, Yokogawa’s growth in IA business has increased more than four-fold over the last five years in the Middle East.
YME is the regional headquarters with multi-cultural professional workforce specialised in various functions.
Currently, YME employs over 338 staff in sales, engineering and technical support deployment in strategic locations throughout the region.
Local Partnership
Moreover, Yokogawa is increasing its presence across the region from its Middle East headquarters in Bahrain plus operational offices in Jubail, Al Khobar and Yanbu for Saudi Arabia; and Abu Dhabi, Dubai (Jebel Ali), Muscat, Doha and Tehran.
Yokogawa has taken advantage of Bahrain’s strategic location not only for its ease of access to the region but as a global centre of excellence in the provision of technology and service support.
Since Yokogawa moved its Middle East representative office from Kuwait to Bahrain in May 1990, the operation has gone from strength to strength with 265 Bahrain nationals out of the total of a staff of 338.
In Bahrain, YME is expanding its Sitra facilities in terms of its Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Staging facilities expansion including FAT 2 at 600 sqm; FAT 3 at 800sqm; and work is in progress for FAT 4 at 1,200 sqm.
In between FAT 3 and FAT 4 Yokogawa is refurbishing a building with storage and offices. With this level of FAT expansion including a staging area YME is gearing up to handle larger projects.
To meet increasing business demand and to provide technical resources to the wider region, however Yokogawa has also invested in establishing new companies in other countries.
In April 2006, Yokogawa Engineering Middle East FZE started operations in Jebel Ali Free Zone. From this location Yokogawa is executing seven projects; three in the UAE, and one in Oman, Egypt, Yemen and Iran.
The oil, gas, petrochemical, and power markets in the Middle East are growing fast with increasing investments in these markets, leveraging from the revenues resulting from higher oil prices.
Despite strong international competition, YME has succeeded in gaining the confidence of its customers thanks to the high reliability of Yokogawa products and the professionalism of its employees.
The Yokogawa workforce comprises engineers specialized in various instrumentation fields. Most projects are locally managed and executed by its staff, including engineering, commissioning, startup and training.
The activities of YME cover Sales and Engineering Services embracing Project Management, Supply, Site Services, Training and Maintenance of Integrated Process Automation Systems, Process Control Instruments and Test and Measuring Instruments.
Yokogawa aims to increase its efficiency through three initiatives, namely, customer-centric solutions, leading edge technology and One global Yokogawa.
Global Leadership
The parent company, Yokogawa Electric Corporation, was founded in Japan in 1915. From the company’s beginnings as a producer of electrical measuring instruments, Yokogawa has been steadfast to its goal of applying leading edge technology to support industry to operate production facilities more efficiently.
Yokogawa worldwide employs more than 18,000 people in a global network of 18 manufacturing facilities, 83 affiliate companies, and over 650 sales and engineering offices in 28 countries worldwide.
With more than $3.6 billion in sales, Yokogawa is committed to applying state-of-the-art technology in the company’s three main divisions of industrial automation, test and measurement and information systems, including aviation and industry support.
Yokogawa’s commitment to innovation is reflected in the company’s exceptionally high ration of investment in R&D, which enables the sustained development of pioneering new technologies, products and services.
