Ajinomoto Co., Inc.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc., a global enterprise established in 1909, manufactures and sells seasonings and foods, frozen foods, healthcare products, and more. The company’s purpose is to “contribute to the well-being of all human beings, our society and our planet with ‘AminoScience.’” Ajinomoto’s 2030 vision aims to extend the healthy life expectancy of 1 billion people and reduce its environmental impact by 50%, while achieving business growth. To realize this goal, Ajinomoto is driving business transformation for sustainable growth, including through efforts to transform existing operations and develop new businesses by pursuing digital transformation (DX) initiatives.
“The Ajinomoto Group operates with a business model in which its subsidiaries in various countries and regions maintain a high degree of independence while offering locally rooted products. While this independence is a major strength, it also presented a challenge: weak horizontal linkages between businesses and subsidiaries,” says Mr. Kazuaki Yasuma, Associate General Manager of the Planning & Innovation Group, Digital Transformation Department, Corporate Division, Ajinomoto.

This project aimed to integrate data valuable for operations and to empower individual employees to leverage the data for DX initiatives. The target scope was broad, encompassing domestic and overseas supply chain management (SCM), customers, R&D, management accounting, and collaboration with external parties. The project initially focused on domestic SCM, where the business units’ needs were clearly defined. The five pillars of the initiatives were “strategy,” “data management infrastructure construction,” “utilization support,” “rule formulation,” and “human resources education.” The plan was to proceed while ensuring balance across these areas. Furthermore, a use-case-driven approach was adopted, selecting use cases expected to be useful for business units and highly effective, and integrating the necessary data to realize them.
“To make the data truly useful for operations, it was essential to accurately identify the needs of the business units and ensure the integration of data that would genuinely benefit operations, while having the business units actively use the data,” says Mr. Toru Kumamoto, Manager of the Planning & Innovation Group, Digital Transformation Department, Corporate Division, Ajinomoto.
“By adopting a use-case-driven approach, we were able to construct a framework for data utilization that connects businesses while accurately understanding core issues, needs, and aspirations through dialogue with the business units. In particular, by strengthening data linkage across businesses and addressing challenges from a cross-sectional perspective, we were able to break down silos and enable Group-wide use of previously isolated data. As a result, we were able to maximize the project’s quality, cost, and delivery (QCD), which we regard as one of the key strengths of this use-case-driven approach,” says Mr. Kumamoto.

Ajinomoto, its affiliate NRI System Techno, Ltd., and ABeam established a three-company co-creation system to drive the project forward. ABeam provided comprehensive support, ranging from formulation of the master plan during the project’s initiation phase, selection of use cases, construction of the data management infrastructure, integrated data design and development, and creation of the data catalog, to in-house production.
“ABeam understood the unique characteristics and strengths of each company and effectively led the co-creation system, which were key factors in the project’s success. I also believe that ABeam’s leadership, which provided timely and appropriate guidance and support, while maintaining a comprehensive view of the project and strengthening coordination with all stakeholders, played a crucial role,” says Mr. Kumamoto.
“One of my concerns at the start of the project was how to create value for ADAMS as early as possible, and how to ensure that the results were understood by all stakeholders. I appreciate ABeam’s support, which went beyond simply promoting the project. Through discussions, they provided us with new perspectives and helped turn our vague ideas into concrete plans,” says Mr. Yasuma.
“The organizational knowledge that ABeam has systematized has been very helpful to us. Thanks to ABeam’s wealth of accumulated know-how, the project progressed smoothly,” recalls Mr. Yuta Onozuka of the Planning & Innovation Group, Digital Transformation Department, Corporate Division, Ajinomoto.