Top Japanese Endoscopy Product Secret... Artisan Crafts 'Stitch by Stitch'

Latest Endoscope Manufacturing Site
Visiting Eyes Olympus Factory

Engineers Assemble Tiny Parts Themselves
Not Mass-Produced in Factory Style

On the 7th, we visited the ‘Aizu Olympus’ factory in Fukushima, Japan. This is where 70% of the digestive endoscopes used in hospitals worldwide are produced. In the lens processing room on the 2nd floor of Building B, about 60 engineers were placing three tiny lenses into units under microscopes. Nowadays, endoscopes are so sophisticated that they can magnify up to 520 times, allowing the observation of epithelial cell structures, but the lenses are very small, measuring only 1 to 3 mm, requiring high concentration from the workers.

On the 3rd floor of Building B, in the imaging unit process, ultra-precision work was underway. They were connecting three wires inside a substrate only 1 mm in size to enable capturing the condition of organs through ultra-small lenses. Shoji Abe, Head of Business Planning at Aizu Olympus, said, “If an engineer applies even a little heat during this process, the semiconductor components get damaged, losing their marketability,” adding, “There is a significant difference in the quality of the endoscope tip (the internal imaging function) depending on the engineers’ skills in unit processing and assembly.”

Engineers are working at the Eyes Olympus factory.
Photo by Byeon Seon-jin

The Secret Behind Japanese Companies Holding 70% of the Digestive Endoscope Market

“Craftsmanship.” This is the secret behind Olympus, which completely ceased digital camera production and manufacturing to become a 100% medical device company this year, achieving a 70% global market share in digestive endoscopes. Producing one high-efficiency endoscope requires delicate bonding work in various areas such as the endoscope tube unit, bending unit, and imaging unit. This is a field where veteran craftsmanship skills that cannot be replaced by digital technology are essential.

Olympus endoscopes have consistently maintained “in-house integrated production.” This means that processing, manufacturing, assembly, and final inspection of each part of the endoscope?such as the tip, insertion part, operation part, and connection part?are all handled within a single factory. Kenji Matsuoka, Factory Manager at Aizu Olympus, explained, “Quality is paramount for endoscopes that diagnose and treat patient lesions, and outsourcing production can lead to management negligence.”

Endoscopes are not produced like mass-produced items in a factory. At the 50,000㎡ factory, the daily production volume per model is at most 15 units. Factory Manager Matsuoka said, “To ensure customer satisfaction, we adopted a multi-product, small-lot production method (about 300 models) to create thin yet high-performance endoscopes.”

Factory digitalization is also underway. Since endoscopes are high-precision assemblies requiring engineers’ delicate skills, they devised ways to reduce fatigue and maximize production efficiency. Starting this year, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) functions have been introduced to easily indicate connection points during the wiring soldering process of image sensors. AI handles quality measurement and correction tasks for the processing of tiny lenses as small as 1 mm. Currently, the automation rate at the Aizu Olympus factory is 100% in parts processing and 20% in assembly.

The future endoscope faces one challenge: whether the insertion part can be made thinner than it is now. Many patients still report “pain” during unsedated examinations. When Olympus commercialized the world’s first endoscope (GT-1) in 1952, the insertion part was 12 to 13 mm wide. Now, 9.8 mm has become the standard. Factory Manager Matsuoka avoided a direct answer, saying, “There is a paradox where reducing the tip width while maintaining high performance is difficult. It is a point that requires careful consideration.”

Image of endoscope usage

Olympus is also focusing on new product development. Starting next year, they plan to distribute AI-equipped endoscopes to about 100 hospitals and aim for 20% usage in approximately 70,000 hospitals by 2027. AI helps detect lesions missed by medical staff, reducing misdiagnosis rates and contributing to patient safety. This year, the ‘Evis X1’ endoscope system will be launched in the Korean and North American markets. It is already in use in Japan and Europe, where regulatory approvals were obtained earlier. The special light emitted from the illumination lens clearly identifies bleeding areas in the gastrointestinal tract and even enables diagnosis of hematologic cancers.

Expanding Beyond Medical Devices

Olympus is expanding beyond digestive endoscopes and broadening its medical device portfolio. It is focusing on therapeutic solution businesses (TSD - Therapeutic Solution Division) for diagnosis and treatment of over 100 diseases, including the three major cancers worldwide (lung, colon, stomach), as well as urology and respiratory treatments. The sales growth target for the TSD area from fiscal years 2024 to 2026 (April to March) is set to exceed the 5% sales growth target of the endoscope business. After withdrawing from digital cameras and microscopes, Olympus achieved an operating profit margin of 22.7% in fiscal year 2022, up from 17.7% the previous year. Sales reached 871 billion yen (approximately 8 trillion won). The company plans to maintain an operating profit margin above 20% through diversification of its medical device business.

According to global market research firm Pitch Solution, the global medical device market size was $562.6 billion (752 trillion won) last year and is expected to grow significantly to $965.2 billion (1,290 trillion won) by 2031 due to factors such as aging populations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.