COMPANIES

COMPANIES

FIRST Co., Ltd.

Aiming to create a well-designed town Sign and display manufacturer's circular economy initiatives

FIRST Co., Ltd. is a comprehensive sign, display, and digital signage company. With over 55 years of experience and know-how since our founding, we support our customers' businesses in a timely and effective manner by employing a system that integrates all stages, from planning and product development to manufacturing and sales. Our corporate philosophy is to create communities where good design enhances everyday life. We are dedicated to providing services and products that make our living more convenient, comfortable, and enriched.

Brand strength enhanced through awards and certifications, such as the Good Design Award First Co., Ltd. has won Good Design Award for 11 series of our products, including standing signs, which has enhanced our third-party evaluation and credibility, and contributed to the creation of well-designed towns. On the technology side, we are a certified Aichi Brand company and have been awarded the excellence prize of the Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Award.

Benefits of a highly versatile construction method First's "4X Construction Method®" (a registered trademark) is a method of sharing basic product components (faceplate, pillar, base, joints) as standardized parts, enabling us to provide customers with signs and displays according to their size, color, and shape requirements. This method allows for efficient high-mix, small-lot mass production, with over 100 million possible combinations.
Due to the modular nature of the 4X Construction Method®, we can achieve made-to-order production with a short delivery time. In addition to reducing maintenance and management costs by eliminating inventory, we streamline repair processes with simple parts replacement, which improves maintenance efficiency. Furthermore, since the components are not welded or glued, they can be disassembled and replaced by hand, making them suitable for reuse and recycling. We implement a production approach focused on sustainability and efficiency and help customers respond flexibly and swiftly to market fluctuations.

Striving for quality that ensures safety and security in the community Recognized for the quality and environmental management systems we have established, First is certified in both the ISO 9001 international quality management system and ISO140001 environmental management system. Panel stands and other outdoor signs in particular must be designed not only for appearance but also durability to ensure safety. To check the risk of signs' falling or breakage, we have an independent third-party architectural organization conduct durability tests (wind tunnel tests), testing against maximum instantaneous wind speeds to establish clear standards for safe use.
At First, we also hold internal company competitions, primarily among production group employees. We evaluate entries and make suggestions on practical structural aspects such as ease of assembly and resistance to breakage; this has even resulted in developing patents and utility models. Through such programs, we are making steady, rapid improvements in quality and durability.

Efforts towards SDG-focused products and community engagement First conforms with all SDG targets and promotes them with the following initiatives.

8. Decent work and economic growth
First's system integrates all processes, from product development to procurement, production, and sales. Through this approach, employees grow while acquiring the skills needed to respond to any request made. This fosters a work style that leverages our strengths and expertise, supporting our evolution into a company committed to sustainable growth and adaptability to any market situation.

11. Sustainable cities and communities
As one element in revitalizing local communities, we use our own digital signage at bus terminals and other locations to share information from restaurants belonging to local shopping district promotion associations. One of our CSR activities involves conducting trash pick-up activities on the banks of the neighboring Tenpaku River. Through these efforts, we aim to build strong ties with the local community.

12. responsible consumption, production
With our 4X Construction Method®, First has established a manufacturing system that avoids surplus inventory and overproduction. This enables us to manufacture products only as needed, and in the precise quantities required, allowing us to continue to supply communities with convenient, useful products without overly impacting the global environment. In addition, the ease of parts replacement enables sustainable use of the products.

Production Examples

  • Products Received the Good Design Award

    To date, 11 series of our products have won the Good Design Award, which is an award judged comprehensively for products that improve peoples’ everyday lives and society through design.

  • “Comabo” Digital Signage Series

    With the technology and knowledge that we have developed as a sign and display manufacturer, we can provide a wide range of services including the design and manufacture of original casings, stands, and bases as well as embedding displays.

  • “Cloree" series of eco-friendly sign and display products

    By incorporating recycled textile materials into our sign and display products, we are making efforts toward manufacturing that contributes to a sustainable society.

  • Disinfectant stands (product aimed at preventing the spread of infection)

    We are ready to respond quickly to market needs for products other than signs and displays using our ample manufacturing experience and knowhow.

  • Magazine to support wonderful shops: “Kanban Joshi (Sign Girl)” (Website)

    Kanban Joshi is our original brand that we mostly use on our website. With it, we help make customers’ shop creation more enjoyable by offering easy-to-use and well-designed shop-related products and providing information useful for shop creation.

Company Profile

Company Name FIRST Co., Ltd.
Founded 1978
Capital 58.8 million yen
Head Office Head Office: 815, Hara 1-chome, Tempaku-ku, Nagoya, 468-0015 Japan
Representative Takashi Mizumoto, President and CEO
Number of Employees 27
Business Activities Manufacture and sales of signage displays, electronic signboards, and store fixtures
【Products】
・Indoor stands, Media signs, Panel stands, Poster panels, Decorative illumination signs, Sign stands, Catalog stands, Partitions, Display parts, Optional items, Spare parts, etc.

Efforts to develop new environmentally friendly products

From petroleum-based to natural materials Developing low-carbon products with support from our own parts stock

【Product Features】


First’s strength lies in creating diverse configurations.  Collaborating with students and experts to develop products, we have developed partitions and wall-mounted racks that use eco-materials and existing extrusion material parts.


After repeated brainstorming, we have expanded our product development efforts from our previous product target, B to B, to also include B to C. 


We used a prototyping method that combined our existing parts with eco-materials such as paper and pulp molding, bamboo and laminated wood, and cardboard.  Ultimately, we chose the cardboard. We aimed to bring good design to the living environment mainly with backgrounds for remote work situations and room screens, while leading to greater awareness of eco-products. In line with architecture’s current semi-architecture trend, we incorporated designs that make the most of the material while enhancing the visual appeal by exposing cross-sections of the panels and metal fittings. The designs we adopted also simplify size changes and storage, providing complete flexibility in changing products applications.

【Points leading to green innovation】

There was an issue with products using recycled materials, in that they cost more than virgin materials. Enhancing our knowledge of carbon neutrality and circular economy, we took advantage of the strengths we have cultivated to integrate our existing parts with cardboard, which—even for environmentally-friendly paper—is inexpensive, sturdy, and 100% recyclable.

We will contribute to creating a low-carbon society by developing a cycle that allows existing products to be reused and then recycled when disposed.


Interview

Background on Participation in this Project

First has met our customers’ diverse needs with high-mix, small-lot manufacturing. Still, we recognize that changes in society were requiring us to address a broader range of customer needs. We participated in this project as an opportunity leading to new initiatives.

Findings and impressions after participating

Our comprehension of carbon neutrality and circular economy increased as we worked on this project. Leveraging the strengths that First has developed, we used prototyping methods to explore the transition from petroleum-based materials to natural alternatives, alongside the use of new materials. However, signs and displays that we developed using recycled and natural materials did not meet product visibility requirements, highlighting the challenges of commercializing these products.

Future proposals from our company

As a company operating in the sign and display and digital signage fields, First has increased its corporate value by developing products with a focus on production efficiency and visibility. While we have tackled the challenge of developing products with various designs, we have encountered the difficulty in applying conventional approaches to creating products that serve to promote environmental initiatives such as carbon neutrality, the circular economy, and SDGs. In particular, the prototyping process in this project underscored the importance of aligning the product concept with its structure and the visibility of the product itself. Although this is a difficult subject, we remain committed to developing product with the aim of providing a wide range of products matched to our customers’ needs through manufacturing that helps us achieve a low-carbon society.