[Spooky23]

The japanese companies were pretty amazing in the commercial space.

My employer had a few Fujitsu ultra portables in the circa 2007 timeframe. One of our internal customers mentioned to a salesguy that they needed a particular port in a particular location on the laptop, not expecting anything. Two weeks later, they Fedexed a loaner/prototype with the port.

Really an amazing experience. We were buying 5-6 figure quantities of Dells and HP, and they could barely handle trivial requests re packaging, etc.

[tluyben2]

I had Fujitsu laptops from beginning of the 2000s until around 2009; the quality and support were amazing. You paid for it but man these things were good. Panasonic makes great laptops as well but these days it really does not warrent the high pricetag...

[kw71]

I'd buy another Fujitsu if they had any current models with displays that are up to date. Seems someone there thinks that anyone who is using a portable doesn't need a display taller than 768 (or some other absurdly low number of) pixels.

[basch]

the problem is, this merger collapsed. http://www.pcworld.com/article/3056030/computers/proposed-to...

now Fujitsu is looking to be acquired by Lenovo http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/27/business/tech/fu...

and Toshiba is ending its consumer laptops entirely. http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/toshi...

Toshiba Vaio would still make a good merger, one with sexy consumer laptops (the only PC laptop ever respected by Steve Jobs) and the other with functional utilitarian business laptops.

[mkaziz]

I didn't realize Toshiba is stopping selling consumer laptops! Such sad news. :( I've exclusively bought Toshiba every since I got my first laptop way back when.

[tluyben2]

Yes, for Fuljitsu that is a big reason; Panasonic has nice displays but they have insane prices. I was checking one of those (these [0] I think) in Tokyo and they are really nice; insanely long battery life, high res and generally very well built. But crazy prices.

[0] http://panasonic.jp/pc/products/sz6e/

[abawany]

I have seen quite a few Fujitsu machines on sale at eBay via their refurbished store. Plenty have 2160p displays; I recently got a Q555 made-in-Japan tablet for reading that has a 1920x1200 10.1" screen. My 3+ year old T902 (1600x900) is still superb though I might replace it with a T935 (2560x1440) some day.

[ghaff]

For whatever reason, a number of Japanese companies were really driving the state-of-the-art for small laptops at on point. I also had one of the small Fujitsus and it was really nice for traveling at a time when even the more portable Thinkpads were fairly heavy and bulky in comparison.

In a way, they were pre-Netbook Netbooks--although their processors and memory configurations were often closer to "regular" laptops than netbooks were.

[Tepix]

I've always wanted to buy one of those Fujitsu notebooks with displays that also worked in bright daylight. They were super expensive and I never saw one on eBay, however.

[notoothpaste]

I wonder what their manufacturing processes are like, such that they could accommodate this kind of flexibility.

[yaakov34]

In most manufacturing, you have a prototype hall or floor where you have somewhat more general purpose/flexible machines with a lot of manual intervention to make small quantities of prototypes, and factories with automated machines set up to make the exact parts you need for your full production.

This was always my experience in electronics - you, as the development engineer, set up small-scale production (going from prototypes to EV or engineering validation articles, which are basically the final product produced by these manual/slow methods), and then manufacturing engineers work with you to transfer your processes to an automated assembly line making who knows how many units a minute.

It's not unusual to produce a special prototype in the small/experimental floor; I mean, Apple probably goes through hundreds (or whatever) of prototypes and test articles before releasing their next phone, and they are certainly not stopping their million-per-day manufacturing plants to make them. However, it does show impressive commitment to the customer on the part of Fujitsu.

Also, electronics is more cyclical than cars (3-year-old model may be completely different and useless compared to the current one), so it is common to produce everything in batches rather than "the Toyota way" with just-in-time. In other words, if a laptop model is sold for 2 years, the whole run may have been made in 6 months, and then you have that manufacturing equipment sitting idle while the next prototype is worked on, so you may have equipment and engineers to spare. Only a few of the highest-volume factories (e.g. Apple again, I assume) run at full capacity all the time.

[lisivka]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Toyota_Way

Quote:

Principle 3

    Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.

A method where a process signals its predecessor that more material is needed. The pull system produces only the required material after the subsequent operation signals a need for it. This process is necessary to reduce overproduction.

[notoothpaste]

I too have heard of Kanban and JIT from my fellow arrogant valley douches. I would like to understand the specific manufacturing processes that make one-off products of production quality viable.

[lisivka]

I suggest to read Gemba Kaizen books. Yes, it is hard to understand first, but then you realize that Toyota Way is like 3D printer — add only what is needed right now, do it fast, be precise.

So yes, you are right — Toyota Way is not viable for mass production, but it perfect for areas where human labor is still plays major role in manufacturing, e.g. programming.

[dba7dba]

It was probably more like having some engineers and guys in shop/factory work weekend to meet the demand, on top of what they were already supposed to do.

[notoothpaste]

In order to create a prototype with a port in a different location, they would need, at the very least, to produce a one-off motherboard PCB, and a one-off injection molded case. That they could justify doing so to produce near production quality results for a small order either indicates impressive manufacturing flexibility, or an inefficient manufacturing process.

[kw71]

Your assumptions that they would need to redesign and tool up for brand new complex motherboard and housing parts are incorrect. This is a foolish way to accommodate a request to physically move a connector.

[lisivka]

Their process is implemented for flexibility first, then for mass production. Look at Toyota fabric [1]. Do you see lot of advanced robots to reprogram for each new model?

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5RlapdEtE

[notoothpaste]

So how is/was Fujitsu's laptop manufacturing tailored toward flexibility? I want the details. If all you can do is passive aggressively repeat vague ideas that were printed in mainstream management and manufacturing texts decades ago, don't respond at all. Nobody cares about or wants your input.

[yaakov34]

And you think that someone from Fujitsu (where it's 8 in the evening, BTW) is going to jump in here and explain their factory layout to you, because you've put your foot down? The best general answer you are going to get is "They made it using whatever process they used to make prototypes. Probably". You want names, ranks, and serial numbers - try writing to Fujitsu. Preferably while being more polite.

[thedaniel]

Or... that it was an option for port placement they'd already considered, and they pulled an existing prototype out of the library, which seems more likely to me.

[Johnny555]

You were buying 10,000 - 100,000 laptops, or $10,000 - $100,000 worth of laptops (around 5 - 50 at $2000 each)?

If it's the former, I'm surprised they didn't package them anyway you want. If the latter, I'm not surprised they wouldn't make any changes.

[philtar]

It's probably the latter. You can be not surprised, that's fine. You probably seem hard to impress as you just glossed over the fact that fujitsu did that for them.