News Releases

Hitachi Begins Operations of Asia Training Center, a Training Center
for Elevator and Escalator Engineers in Asia

Aiming to improve installation and maintenance skills of elevators and escalators

Tokyo, 25th January, 2017 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501, “Hitachi”) and Hitachi Building Systems Co., Ltd. (“Hitachi Building Systems”) today announced the establishment of the Asia Training Center, a training site for engineers involved in the elevator and escalator business in the Asian region, in Chonburi Province, Thailand. The Center will begin operations on January 25, 2017. The Asia Training Center, positioned as a training center on installation and maintenance skills and safety controls of Hitachi's elevators and escalators in the region, will foster mid-level engineers in Asian countries and ensure higher quality and safety than ever, which is the Hitachi's top most priority. Hitachi and Hitachi Building Systems will take this occasion to further increase the level of installation and maintenance operations of elevators and escalators in the Asian region and accelerate the development of engineers at the same time.

Hitachi's global training scheme on elevators and escalators, and the role of the Asia Training Center

Hitachi and Hitachi Building Systems have the Human Resources Development Center in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, as a comprehensive training site to train and foster engineers involved in elevator and escalator operations, and provided practical training using a variety of elevators and escalators of different models and ages at the Center. Meanwhile, global engineers were fostered under a scheme whereby Hitachi's local companies in Asia trained engineers on their own and dispatched only senior engineers to the Human Resources Development Center in Japan for advanced training. As the new model of the machine room-less elevator was launched in the Asian region in September 2016, Hitachi and Hitachi Building Systems decided to revise the training scheme and have created a tiered scheme whereby engineers are trained depending on their work and skill levels. The Asia Training Center was established under this new training scheme as a site to develop engineers who will play a central role and the Center will provide mid-level training to key persons in technical departments of the companies overseas. The key persons will be selected among the engineers who have received the basic training provided by their companies.

The tiered training scheme consists of the following three phases:

1. Training in the local companies in Asia (first phase: Basic skill training)

Basic skill training is provided to engineers working for the local companies or the local subcontractors through the use of practical tools and mock-up facilities.

2. Training in the Asia Training Center (second phase: Mid-level training for engineers)

The mid-level training is provided to the selected key persons who have received the basic skill training in their companies. The Asia Training Center is equipped with the models for the Asia region manufactured in Thailand and China as training machines and engineers learn actual work procedures and practical skills for installation and maintenance work. One of the focus areas in the training is safety, for example, in the safety training room that has been built aiming to increase safety awareness through virtual experiences, trainees will learn about potential risks in work environments and the importance of safety equipment that prevents these potential risks.

3. Training in the Human Resources Development Center in Japan (third phase: Management training)

The Human Resources Development Center, located in Tokyo, is positioned as the top-level site in the global training scheme and provides advanced training for senior engineers and management training for business managers.
Hitachi and Hitachi Building Systems will accelerate the development of global human resources and improve safety and quality of installation and maintenance work of elevators and escalators in the Asian region by utilizing the Asia Training Center, based on the global training scheme. Through the enhancement of the global structure of elevator and escalator business, the companies aim to receive 5,000 units of elevators and escalators annually in the region.

Outline of the Asia Training Center

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2015 (ended March 31, 2016) totalled 10,034.3 billion yen ($88.8 billion). The Hitachi Group is a global leader in the Social Innovation Business, and it has approximately 335,000 employees worldwide. Through collaborative creation, Hitachi is providing solutions to customers in a broad range of sectors, including Power / Energy, Industry / Distribution / Water, Urban Development, and Finance / Government & Public / Healthcare. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.