You can't achieve innovation for the client without knowledge grounded in their workplace ―

An interview with a manager who takes on logistics DX, applying a deep on-the-ground understanding of client firms cultivated over many years, and specialized expertise in supply chain management (SCM).

 

K.O

Why ABeam ?

K.O

I joined ABeam in 2008 as a mid-career hire. An SIer for a manufacturer in my previous job, I had mainly been in charge of changing out infrastructure systems. While I did find it meaningful to use technology to solve issues for companies, most of my projects progressed based on systems. That was my reason for actively seeking a career change. What convinced me to join ABeam was the personality of my interviewer. This is my personal impression, but I have a rather dry image of consulting firms as being obsessively performance-driven.

As my interview proceeded, ABeam dispelled that impression. After joining the company, something that I found unexpected in a good way was this organization and culture in which members partner with each other, even when they're not acquainted, for mutual help and enhancement. Behind these qualities is an inherent insistence on value provided to the client. For example, through our internal knowledge management organization, we can be introduced to members who are responsible for projects related to our own. In this way, individual knowledge and experience is dispersed companywide, showing a commitment to achieving improved services for the client and our aspirational to-be state.

Experiences in ABeam ~ Impressive Project~

The project that made the deepest impression on me was one involving logistics cost reduction for a major food products manufacturer. For several years, the company had been leaving its logistics management up to a subsidiary, but continual cost increases were starting to impinge on profits. So we conducted survey research and proposed measures, recommending an approach to logistics operations that would lead to cost improvement and decision-making on the validity of logistics costs.
First off, we made a particular pursuit of improving the accuracy of our hypothesis. Ordinarily, we would establish a hypothesis based on data analysis and on-site interviews. This time, however, we placed particular emphasis on views voiced during client workplace interviews in order to produce results more efficiently and effectively in a short time frame. Issues and solutions vary widely, even among projects that are all in the supply chain management (SCM) field. While applying ABeam's proficiency and know-how in the SCM field, we can sort out and understand the client's immediate state of affairs to recommend fact-based solutions and make convincing proposals.
For this project, we conducted interviews with all parties concerned, including the leaders and workers in the sales and production departments, multiple logistics centers across the country, the logistics subsidiary and the client project team. From the interviews, we drew out and compiled the individual concerns of each department one by one. The logistics department, for example, emphasizes meeting delivery deadlines when responding to requests from the sales department. And sales take orders from customers who require tight delivery deadlines.
We thus formulated a hypothesis centering on interviews conducted in the workplace, validated our hypothesis based on the survey, and recommended specific measures to improve logistics costs. Logistics characteristically constitute a cumulative layering of activities by multiple departments, which was obscuring the locus of responsibility for logistics costs and posing difficulties for logistics cost control and management. So we conducted a cost structure analysis, and proposed operation management in which the costs generated by a specific process would trace back to the department from which it originated. In addition, we engaged employees in repeated workplace discussions from the hypothesis formulation stage, which provided an awareness of the company's logistics and SCM inefficiencies, as well as problems with management methods. This led to promotion of understanding of what steps needed to be taken next.

As workplace issues and limitations come to be accepted unconsciously as a matter of course, they are excluded from improvement efforts. Awareness and understanding of objectives can differ by department and by point of view, which impedes overall optimization. Such problems can be found scattered throughout organizations, and are difficult to detect from within. In this project, we achieved a neutral grasp of problems, disentangled the opinions in the workplace, and suggested issues and solutions while linking them to upstream problems and circumstances. In this way, we carried out actions that helped embody the value of consultants.

Future ~Growth Story~

K.O

As companies take digitalization to higher levels, the shift toward contactless solutions in the logistics and SCM fields is accelerating. In order to respond to these social changes and the needs of the times, I want to help formulate themes for digitalization that companies need, such as building automation-based logistics frameworks, and to help clients achieve it.

I also think that one of ABeam's strengths is our formidable ability to understand our clients. In my department, we undertake not only big-picture conceptualization of corporate transformation, but also the creation of highly practical services in the SCM domain. Our efforts begin with site visits to numerous leading companies in the manufacturing industry to study their facilities, business processes, employees' views, etc. In this way, we place emphasis on cultivating a deep understanding of the corporate workplace. This is because you can't achieve innovation for the client without knowledge grounded in their workplace. I want to lead digital transformation in logistics by combining an understanding of the corporate workplace cultivated over many years with ABeam's human resources and expertise specializing in each industry and in digitalization.

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