Technology Innovation
Basic Philosophy
The KONOIKE Group’s business competitiveness depends on providing more attractive services, and we recognize the importance of innovation in the field to achieve greater heights in response to the recent and various changes in the logistics and warehousing industry. To this end, we opened the Konoike Institute of Technology Innovation Center (Giken IC) in March 2021, which has been at the forefront of accelerating technological innovation. It achieves this through three functions: (1) conducting experiments and proof-of-concept tests to confirm the effectiveness of new technologies and post-introduction operations by recreating various KONOIKE Group work sites at the Giken IC; (2) accelerating open innovation in which customers and vendors of new technologies gather at the Giken IC to discuss and observe the recreated sites and new technologies, and; (3) engaging in technological development with customers that meets with their future vision as part of our sales activities. In addition, we have enhanced literacy training at the group-wide level to ensure that technological innovations are instilled across the entire Group. In this way, efforts toward improvement we have taken together with field teams have gradually borne fruit. Going forward, we will continue to promote technological innovations directly related to the strengthening of field capabilities.
Medium-Term Business Plan KPIs
FY3/2023
Results
FY3/2024
Results
FY3/2025
Results
FY3/2028
Target
No. of new technologies in the field
19
26
24
45
No. of PoCs conducted to introduce new
technology in the field
55
45
38
68
No. of technical verifications at TechIC
13
9
9
18
| FY3/2023 Results |
FY3/2024
Results
|
FY3/2025
Results
|
FY3/2028
Target
|
|
| No. of new technologies in the field | 19 | 26 | 24 | 45 |
| No. of PoCs conducted to introduce new technology in the field |
55 | 45 | 38 | 68 |
| No. of technical verifications at TechIC | 13 | 9 | 9 | 18 |
Examples of Initiatives
We work to improve our front lines based on the following three perspectives: ① New technologies that enable people and technology to support each other, ② Improving safety through jig and fixture developments based on work experience, and ③ Strengthening engineering capabilities to respond quickly to rapid changes in the business environment. Through these efforts, we will evolve to a new vision of our front lines, encouraging people and technology to work together in leveraging the strengths of each through an integration of skills developed in the field with the most advanced technologies available. In this way, we will use technology to contribute to the sustainable growth and profitability of the Company, while creating new value for our customers. From the viewpoint of ①, above, we are adopting support systems to help workers perform tasks intuitively, developing a new work style through the collaboration of driverless automated guided vehicles (AGVs).
We use the KONOIKE in-house test site to verify proposals by recreating the actual on-site environment, which ensures the success of final proposals. From the viewpoint of ②, we develop specialized jigs, fixtures, and equipment internally based on accumulated knowledge, introducing these tools to our work sites to foster environments in which anyone can work safely and efficiently. These efforts have led to standardization and laborsaving work once performed solely by human workers, contributing to improved working environments and consistency in work quality. From the viewpoint of ③, we continue to conduct pre-adoption verifications for work processes and visualize the impact of improvements. By analyzing work processes and measuring improvement effects quantitatively using simulation data and industrial engineering (IE), we improve the accuracy and maximize the impact of improvements based on objective data in addition to conventional rules of thumb. For example, we visualized the effectiveness and appropriateness of layouts using a simulation to quantitatively estimate the difference before and after the improvement, leading to a highly effective proposal. Through these efforts, we enhance our engineering capabilities to achieve more effective and accurate on-site optimization.
