Leading digital transformation in the manufacturing industry SCM domain

Taking the initiative in R&D activities to create new consulting services after switching careers from a foreign-funded firm. We spoke with a manager who works autonomously to expand the scope of action.

 

T.K

Why ABeam ?

T.K

The decisive factor in my decision to join ABeam was that I would be a member of the Japan office, the headquarters of a global organization with decision-making authority. I sensed the appeal of an environment that allows the discretion to take individual action and try a wide range of business operations.
At the consulting firm I had joined immediately upon graduation, I had been working on business transformation in the supply chain management (SCM) field. I made the decision to join ABeam with the aim of taking more autonomous action to provide value to the client, helping to solve their issues in doing my job of creating services on my own.

At ABeam, my department has set new service creation as a departmental goal, and there's an environment conducive to creating opportunities to actualize ideas through our own work. This gives me a strong sense of worthiness in the work I do.

Experiences in ABeam ~ Impressive Project~

A project involving business process reengineering support (conceptualization and requirements definition) for a client in the manufacturing industry left a particular impression on me.

Information could not be sufficiently shared between departments at the client firm, due to the organizational structure adapted to its existing business processes. They faced a variety of issues including delays in responding to estimates, long lead times from design to production start, and delays in the transition from a product sales model to a service sales model focused on after-sale service.

In order to improve interdepartmental information sharing, we applied ABeam's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and conducted on-site interviews with each department. We set our sights on design information, and provided support from conceptualization to requirements definition for uniform management encompassing everything related to the design information that each department needed, and for a framework for utilizing that information between departments.

This was a project that originated in the on-site IT planning department, and projects that originate in the workplace like this often have gaps between on-the-ground issues in the workplace and what corporate management is thinking.

So, with respect to management, I engaged tenaciously in repeated discussions to deepen my understanding of their anticipated value for this project and of client management strategy. I myself then adopted the perspective of a manager in thoughtfully explaining the impact that realization of this concept would have on managerial matters, thereby gaining the understanding of management.

With respect to the plant locations and departments that constitute the on-site workplace, we conducted briefing sessions and demonstrations of the new operations. By understanding the different issues and needs that pertained to each of these, we built up a cooperative framework over time.

This project was an experience in which I took on the role of a manager, gathering and understanding the voices of diverse stakeholders from factory floor to management so that we could fill in the organizational gaps. We then formulated and implemented concepts that were, from a corporate managerial standpoint, optimal for the client.

Future ~Growth Story~

T.K

While I currently run multiple PLM and supply-demand improvement projects for domestic manufacturing industry clients, I also lead DX service R&D activities for my department.
In my previous job, I had the bitter experience of being unable to propose effective services using the digital technology required by the client in response to the issues they relied on us to solve. I launched these R&D activities out of a desire to solve these kinds of issues on my own.

This year, I am holding workshops using actual project case studies, as well as specific DX services and the technologies they require, with the goal of enabling consultants to acquire DX skills they can actually put to use. In this way, it is part of ABeam's culture to accept and support my launch and operation of these activities for autonomously solving issues and raising the overall value of the firm.
In the future, we can provide new value to clients through new services that benefit from the knowledge gained with these R&D activities. In doing so, my aim is for ABeam to lead DX strategy in SCM, providing strong support for digital transformation by Japanese companies in the SCM domain.

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