Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2012 34 C ole Kepro, a global leader in the design and manufacture of gaming cabinets, is focused on growing its presence on East Asia’s casino floors with an aggressive strategy aimed at leveraging the company’s core strengths in product innovation via a faster, more efficient pipeline for getting those innovations to market. As CEO Frederick Cook Jr. puts it, “We’re looking past being a small cabinet shop in Las Vegas to being a global player.” Unlike its turn-key approach to cabinet design, this is a plan that involves a lot of moving parts: it takes in reducing cycle times, building in efficiencies at each stage of the manufacturing process, deepening the company’s understanding of its core competencies and building on the strengths of its partners in technology. Thanks to design processes that emphasize what Mr Cook calls a “commonality of components”—standardization, in essence— like a new generic wiring harness and the introduction of generic fabrication techniques that allow parts to be easily snapped in and out—together with the introduction of round-the-clock shifts at Cole Kepro’s 134,000-square-foot factory in North Las Vegas— average time to market has been reduced from 16 weeks to four. “We’re really looking to balance our supply chain,” he says. Standardization has also resulted in designs that work off a single CPU and power supply, that incorporate the same connections for games and peripherals, and support multiple software configurations—real value-adds for operators—not to mention boxes that are more durable, more wearable, with glass that doesn’t break or buttons that jar loose. “It’s the attention to detail,” notes Cole Kepro President Glenn Wichinsky. “Everything well-grounded.” At the heart of these innovations is the company’s new Fast Track technology, a CPU harness designed to interface the game board or CPU to a pre-wired cabinet. This new CPU box can then be used in other Fast Track cabinets or changed out for quick upgrades on the floor. It also means that slot techs will be familiar with all internal components, even among different models. The bottom line for the operator: greater flexibility and reduced costs. Fast Track is one of the optional highlights of Cole Kepro’s new 7700 Slant Top, which comes with either 22-inch or 26-inch widescreen LCDs, a variety of LED lighting choices, an elevating bill validator and integrated speaker ports. Available features include AC/DC power distribution box and a bold 3.1 Sound System with subwoofer. For a lower profile (26 inches in total height) there’s the 2800 Drop-In Slant Top, similarly packed with features, like a “Pop Top” 26-inch widescreen main LCD and pop-up bill validator. Cole Kepro Thinking Inside the Box Cole Kepro continues to build on its reputation for industry-leading slot cabinet design and the most advanced manufacturing techniques Evolver Series uprights feature Fast-Track wiring for quick upgrades on the floor