A STRATEGIC MARKET

For businesses operating on a global level, Australia generally falls within the larger Asian region. Yet in terms of characteristics, it stands apart. Johnson Controls Hitachi Air Conditioning’s Vice President and General Manager, Japan and Asia Operations, Kintaro Izumida was recently in the country, and he and Temperzone Chief Customer Officer Damien Walsh spoke to HVAC&R News about the strategic importance of the Australian market – and their plans here.

According to Kintaro Izumida from global HVAC&R manufacturer Johnson Controls Hitachi Air Conditioning, the air conditioning industry is booming.

“We have seen good growth in the global market,” he says. “Among all regions, our growth in Asia region including ANZ was outstanding.”

For Australia, this is positive news.

“This market has a bright future,” he says. “I can say 5–6 per cent growth per year.”

Izumida is in charge of Japan and Asia Operations – a region that contributes a large percentage of the firm’s global revenue. Obviously, Australia is only one part of the region, but Izumida says the significance of the market is more than just its size. It’s also a question of variety.

“We have room air conditioners, we have package units, we have VRF,” he says. “And we have many connected technologies such as IoT.”

Over the past 20 years, Hitachi has partnered with local manufacturer Temperzone, and the company’s Chief Customer Officer Damien Walsh agrees that Australia is a unique market.

“It’s different in different parts of the country,” he says. “Queensland is very RAC driven, NSW and places like SA and WA are very ducted driven, sometimes up to capacities that are unheard of in other parts of the world, and often with high static. We need all these unique line ups that are also specifically designed for our extreme conditions.”

Clean Air Awareness

One of the global changes driving growth for air conditioning is the increase in people working from home because of the COVID 19 pandemic. This has also raised awareness about indoor air quality. In response, the two manufacturers have developed solutions that incorporate automatic coil and filter cleaning, ionisation, and air purification, in both room air conditioners and VRF systems.

“The customer is now not only asking about cooling and heating,” says Izumida. “Also they are requesting good indoor air quality.”

The self cleaning functions reflect an attempt to address a long standing issue in the HVAC&R industry: poor maintenance. As Walsh points out, some of the problems with indoor air quality are simply because filters and coils are not regularly cleaned.

He says another way of improving maintenance is to improve accessibility. This can be done through technology that allows technicians to access system settings by simply tapping on a unit, replacing manual configuration. This also makes it possible to “copy and paste” settings from one unit to multiple units. There are options for predictive maintenance and better online support too.

“You can download the operational data from the system and send it via SMS or email directly to the tech support team,” says Walsh. “They can have a look at the live data that the technician sees and diagnose the problem remotely. It’s that intelligence, that’s advancing our systems significantly.”

Supply Chain Stability

As well as increasing awareness of indoor air quality, the COVID 19 pandemic wreaked havoc on supply chains around the world. Izumida says this forced his company to look at new processes.

“We want to have double sourcing or triple sourcing,” he says. “For example, one chip coming from a China factory, one coming from Thailand, from Malaysia or Japan. It’s a kind of geographical risk avoidance.

“Also, logistics expenses are getting higher. We should produce products near our markets. Or, if you’re far from market, at least reduce the distance.

“Many problems are now getting better, but we could have more surprises. Our supply chains have to be solid.”

Overall, both Izumida and Walsh are upbeat about the outlook for the industry, especially in Australia.

“We don’t have this kind of market anywhere else in the world,” says Izumida. “We can show different solutions, and if we can have success here, we can set this as best practice all over the world. Australia can be a showcase.”

Future Focus

Izumida says the firm’s development will be aligned with three key objectives: sustainability, wellbeing, and digitalisation.

“With climate change being a pressing concern worldwide, the importance of HVAC systems as part of social infrastructure has increased significantly,” he says.

“However, in the past, these systems have had a negative impact on the environment due to their energy consumption and the use of fluorocarbons in their refrigerants. Therefore, we are committed to innovating in the HVAC industry and developing energy saving products that use refrigerants with low ODP (ozone depletion potential) and low GWP (global warming potential). By doing so, we can greatly contribute to protecting the environment.” ■