Hot Minute Ep. 10 - Horizon Smart Factory 2026

The Horizon Smart Factory 2026 event, will be held at the Horizon Factory headquarters in Takashima, Japan, from November 4th to 6th, 2026.  

 
Key highlights include 

• Integration of robotic and workflow systems
•  Lights Out production 
• 5 new solutions
• Collaborations with major printer, workflow, and robotic partners
•  Factory tours
• Japanese cuisine
• Japanese tea ceremony 

The Horizon Team is thrilled to welcome guests from all over the world into the next level of print finishing automation.

Official HSF Newsletters
ON THE HORIZON! #2
ON THE HORIZON! #1

For event inquiries, please find your local contact here:
https://www.horizon.co.jp/en/sales_network/salesnet_index.html

Watch Visual Podcast on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/cVhmchOWC1c

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＊＊＊＊ Past Episodes ＊＊＊＊
#9 Horizon Finishing First 2025
#8 Horizon at Hunkeler Innovation Days 2025
#7 Horizon Smart Factory 2024
#6 Horizon Folder Automation with JD Mackie
#5 Horizon at drupa 2024
#4 Herbert Cheong and #HistorywithHorizon
#3 Ryuji Kinugawa and #HistorywithHorizon
#2 Hideharu Hori and #HistorywithHorizon
#1 Eijiro Hori and #HistorywithHorizon

Transcript

Adrienne Culley  
Hot minute is the official podcast of the Horizon Group, designed to give you all the latest information on Horizon, our solutions, and industry trends. We hope you enjoy, and now let's get into today's episode. 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Hot Minute with Horizon podcast with Adrienne Culley from the Market Promotions team here at Horizon International. I am so excited to be here to talk to you today about our upcoming event, Horizon Smart Factory, happening here at our Biwako Factory headquarters in Takashima, Japan, from November 4th to the 6th. You do not want to miss it, and I don't think I can explain it alone. So here with me is General Manager of the Market Promotions Team, Yasuo Taketsugu.

Yasuo Taketsugu  
Hello, thank you for inviting me again.

Adrienne Culley
I am so excited about the event. I don't even know where to start. So let's talk about our last event. What were the results from 2024, and why are we going to hold and continue to hold this event in the foreseeable future?

Yasuo Taketsugu  
In 2024, we had this event at this factory. We had lots of robotic and a workflow solutions there, and we got lots of interest. Actually, still the project is ongoing, but most importantly, this Smart Factory concept is actually, we established it in 2018. So we divided the steps from number one to number five. Number one is automation. Number two is a system integration, and then number three is robotics, and then number four is lights out operation, and number five is actually human and automation and collaborating together. So along with that concept, gradually we're, you know, including all the new technology into this smart factory concept. At the last event, we showed the lights out concept. We we are able to show the concept, but the there were you know lots of things missing. But this time we want to show a little more, you know, completed version of the lights out through this event.

Adrienne Culley  
Yes, I think our last 2024 event was a really great show of our vision for the future and where we know we can take our customers. And 2026 is a more realized version of that, more available solutions, more complete solutions, and a full package, really, to present. Not that we didn't have it before, but it's a little bit more fine-tuned now, and we have so many new and exciting things to show people. So I think being able to invite people to our factory, where we're manufacturing these things, to show them the care, the quality, and the time that's put into these solutions, and really present the value for the future and for future-proofing production. I think it's been an incredible journey so far. We've had a lot of great feedback, and this is set to be our best show yet. So, what will we be showing as far as inline systems and solutions? Can you give me some hints or some insights as to the equipment that's going to be on the floor?

Yasuo Taketsugu  
Yeah, we are going to collaborate with lots of partners. So we will have a printer partner and a software partner and a robotic partner at the booth. But most importantly, is actually we are going to showcase solutions together, not only for the finishing, but together with the printers and our workflow. System by system, we are going to use most of them are existing solutions, but we are going to integrate together with the partners to showcase. For example, in case of perfect binding, the printer prints and automatically the robot brings to the book block, you know, making system, and then the book is made by the robotics feeder. After the completion, it's not only you know delivered to the conveyor, but we are thinking to you know bring over to the picking department for ready to ship kind of, you know idea will be shown on the floor. So equipment itself, we are going to show some some of new, but the most importantly integrated solution.

Adrienne Culley  
And you led us into a perfect transition for our next section. We have some brand new developments that are going to be on the floor. What can you tell us about those?

Yasuo Taketsugu  
Using this opportunity, we are going to introduce more than five new solutions from Horizon. I can introduce only two this time. One is actually B1 folders. B1 folder, we had it for many years, but what is new is actually more automation into the B1 folder and more durability, more consistency for the future. Proof in production market is you know going for you know more more towards the digital and then people thinks you know B1 market is actually shrinking. It may be shrinking, but still lots of output from the B1 folder. And then thinking about the labor because the scale is getting a little bit less. So having automation now so everyone can use B1 folder makes sense. So we are going to introduce that one. Another one is actually pretty interesting, and I like it very much, which is actually the large format perfect binder, 500 by 500 you know millimeter size book it's able to produce. So which is about 20 inch by 20 inch, right? It's kind of premium book,. So photo books, or you know the reading book, or art book, or you know value-added products able to produce with this binder. We know lots of you know printers or binderies are making those kind of book manually made or producing a little bit overkilled larger system, but we are going to introduce efficient way how we can make that kind of book and more you know new equipment will be displayed in this show.

Adrienne Culley  
Yes, I think the B1 folder is an excellent solution, but the large format binder has created a lot of excitement on our team because it is just so unique, I think it's a great value-added system for customers to create those higher-margin products, and I'm so excited to see the creative books that come out of that. We have a lot of partners that are coming. We could not do this show alone, so we can't list them all here today. I think the list is too long for the podcast, luckily, which is great. But give us some insights on what kind of partners are coming and what they'll be doing at the event.

Yasuo Taketsugu 
We will have most of the major printer partners will be showing their printing solution or at least printing samples at this event. Not only the printers, we have workflow partners and also robotic partners. So we are going to collaborate as much as we can, and then the everyday partner is gradually increasing. So please check the website when you have a chance.

Adrienne Culley  
We are so grateful to be able to present the full package not only from Horizon, but from our industry partners as well. So customers are really getting a lot of value from all sides. We are showing software solutions alongside the equipment and systems. This again goes with the inline solutions and the partners. But why is it important to us that we're making sure that software is on display at our show?

Yasuo Taketsugu  
Yeah, without a workflow solution, even if the machine is automated, it's not really efficient. For example, printing press prints, and then if the palette is sitting forever, it won't progress to the next step, right? If workflow is integrated, we know or system knows what's coming next, and then we can push the production efficient way. So, to run the job more efficiently, workflow is becoming the key from the starting point to the delivery. Integrated entire workflow is actually our goal to establish.

Adrienne Culley 
Yeah, and it's great to have all of those people in one place because it can be confusing when you're looking at software by software. But to have everyone in one place to see the full solution and ask all the questions you need, I think is a huge benefit. Alongside the software, an extremely relevant and important part of the event will be the robotic solutions. So let's talk a little bit about those as well.

Yasuo Taketsugu  
So robotic is actually you know becoming very important for us as well. We've been introducing the robotic solution, starting with the concept basis. We thought in the future some of the tasks people are doing can be replaced by the robotics. We have started this project since 2018, but we are getting into the very important phase now. In the past, we were mostly, you know, asking robotic manufacturer to present or integrate with our solutions, but we are going to develop our interface and also even our branded AGV vehicle from our side, so we can offer to the customer as on a package solution. Maybe the machine by machine can be you know operated by the robotics, or machine to machine can be you know delivered by the AGV vehicle. So those kind of concept we are going to introduce at this event, and it's becoming important. Without those solution now, because it's very difficult to you know hire labors, and the people do not want to do the repetitive task or heavy carrying job. So those simple one can be you know replaced by the robot, so it really makes sense.

Adrienne Culley  
Yeah, and then creating opportunities for those people to do more creative or higher order thinking tasks is our main goal. So we will be showing that at the show. Of course, every event has some extras, so tell us about the fun stuff, the refreshments, the factory tours. Other experiences. What will we have?

Yasuo Taketsugu  
This event we are going to you know hold at our factory. So we want all the visitors to you know experience our factory tour. We want to introduce how we are manufacturing our equipment through our factory tour. That's actually we are prioritizing that one because we have tried to you know go up to the next level, and why we are trying to the next level? Maybe through the factory tour, we can maybe tell to the customers. And another fun stuff is actually we are going to have the kitchen cars around our factory, so you can actually have Japanese food or you know Western food, whatever you want from the kitchen cars.

Adrienne Culley
Yes, 70% of not only our equipment but of the parts that go into our equipment are manufactured here at our factory, which is something we're super proud of, and we are really excited to show customers how we have really scrutinized the quality of all of our processes in the factory to make sure that our manufacturing is world class, so that's a really exciting extra we have. Anything else we should add on about the show? 

Yasuo Taketsugu  
One more fun stuff because you know you are in Japan, so we want you to experience tea ceremony through the show. So we are actually bringing the some professional you tea ceremony you know, performers at the factory. Please feel free to join it.

Adrienne Culley  
Yes, if you need a little break, a little caffeine from the matcha.

Yasuo Taketsugu  
Yeah

Adrienne Culley  
That's that's always a hit at the event and a really nice way to also experience Japanese culture at the same time. 

That about sums it up. So we still have more to confirm and other exciting things that we can't share yet, so please stay tuned because we will be back in the future with more information. We are also genuinely so excited to welcome everyone here to the factory, and if you're interested in joining us here in Japan, please, please, please reach out to your local contact, and we will link all of those contacts below, so it's easy to find. So click the link below, and otherwise, do you have any final words? 

Yasuo Taketsugu  12:43
No, we're just looking forward to you know see everyone at this event.

Adrienne Culley  12:46
So until next time or until you visit us here in Japan, please stay happy, stay healthy, and finish first with Horizon. Bye. 

Arigatou Gozaimashita. Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Hot Minute. If you have any questions or topic requests, please send us an email. We are always looking for new ideas. And until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and finish first with Horizon. Bye.