Effective October 1, 2015, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) will split off its machine tools business to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool Sales Co., Ltd., in Osaka, in an absorption-type company split. The initiative aims to enhance responsiveness to changes in market demand and to expedite corporate decision-making by integrating machine tool manufacturing and marketing into a single entity, effectively increasing the company's ability to compete in the global market. Advertisement In effecting this change, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool Sales Co. the successor company of machine tool business, will move its head office from Osaka to the current Machine Tools Division Office in Ritto, Shiga Prefecture. With machine tool business assets transferred from MHI, it will become a company with more than 1,000 employees. The demand structure of the machine tool market has undergone dramatic change in Japan and other countries.