Promotion of DX

Our group has set the "TOPY Sustainable Green Vision 2050" and aims to realize a sustainable and prosperous society by 2050. This vision is based on the pillars of our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and provide safe and healthy lives. Furthermore, with the aim of realizing this vision and achieving sustainable growth, we have positioned the promotion of digital transformation as one of our key management strategies.
To date, we have implemented various measures, such as revamping our core business systems, visualizing energy, and implementing smart factories (SF) at our production sites, and have seen a number of success stories. For example, the promotion of SF at Toyokawa Plant has led to improved productivity and structural reform. In recognition of these efforts, we renewed our certification as a "DX Certified Business" in June 2024 under the DX certification system established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Going forward, in order to further evolve the technological capabilities that are the source of our group's strengths, we will centrally manage data on operations, energy, quality, etc., generate ideas that transcend organizational boundaries from that data, and work together as a company to accelerate the creation of new value. At the same time, we will work to develop human resources involved in digital transformation and foster a corporate culture that embraces challenges without fear of failure, and will do our utmost to realize a sustainable society.

The business environment surrounding our group is facing an ever more uncertain and rapidly changing competitive environment, including intensifying global competition and climate change responses such as carbon neutrality. In this environment, our customers are also accelerating their digitalization, such as BIM application in the construction industry and CASE and MaaS in the automotive industry. In order to respond quickly to these changes in the environment and co-create with our clients, the use of digital technology has become indispensable.

We have built a company-wide platform for utilizing data and have improved productivity and energy usage efficiency by using visualized information. As a result, our maturity level has reached "Level 3," which involves transforming data into information.
We are currently promoting small-theme activities that clarify the objective from individual optimization to overall optimization by analyzing, evaluating, and predicting changes based on information on production and equipment operation.
Going forward, we will continue to promote digital transformation in a planned manner, aiming to reach "Level 6," where new ideas and inspiration can be generated by accumulating small results in a short period of time.

With the aim of strategically promoting DX across the company, we established the "Digital Transformation Strategy Department" on April 1, 2022.
Up until now, we have built a digital transformation foundation for equipment, processes, activities, etc. through the introduction of an ERP system and the promotion of smart factories. The establishment of Digital Transformation Strategy Department will encourage collaboration and cooperation with related departments, strategically promote digital transformation across the entire company, and strengthen the development of human resources who can utilize big data, etc.
Furthermore, we will establish a "DX Promotion Council" led by General Manager of of DX Strategy Department as a system for promoting DX that spans each business division and head office department, and will determine specific activity themes to promote DX.

We have established a company-wide DX Promotion Council and departmental subcommittees to build a promotion structure. We aim to achieve results by promoting initiatives based on a digital value tree that can clarify the cause-and-effect relationship between the purpose of measures and methods in relation to the desired state.
In order to realize the results of digital utilization in a short period of time, the DX Promotion Subcommittee in particular is implementing and evaluating small theme measures.

June 1, 2022 DX certification acquired

June 1, 2024 DX certification renewal

On June 1, 2024, business strategy for promoting DX and our efforts to develop DX human resources were recognized, and our certification as a "DX Certified Business" was renewed under the DX certification system established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The DX Certification System is a certification system based on the Act on Promotion of Information Processing, which came into effect on May 15, 2020. Businesses that comply with the basic requirements of the Digital Governance Code, which summarizes the responses required of managers in light of social transformation brought about by digital technology, and are recognized as being ready to promote DX (DX Ready), are certified as "DX Certified Businesses" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The certification is valid for two years, and our company obtained the certification on June 1, 2022, and this is the first time it has been renewed.

Our group has positioned DX as one of its important management strategies, and will continue to strategically promote DX in the future to change people's mindsets, improve the environment, and create new value.

Efforts to turn Toyokawa Plant into a profitable business
As part of the smart factory initiative, an environment was created that enables the collection and effective analysis of the model line's operational performance and some quality data, creating a cycle of improvement that utilizes data and resulting in increased productivity and improved business efficiency (Figure 1).

As a concrete example, we use a "weekly daily score sheet" to judge whether each efficiency indicator is good or bad, and then conduct a detailed analysis of the areas that are scored red, identify the problems, and make effective improvements in order to improve productivity (Figure 2).

This activity is a precedent case where digital experts and digital challengers have created a "weekly daily score sheet" based on data analysis and promoted business transformation using data. This initiative has progressed to level 3 in our DX promotion roadmap, where information is compiled. In the future, we aim to achieve even greater results by linking and utilizing data on energy, operational performance, quality performance, etc.

We will train approximately 600 staff-level employees as DX talent by the end of fiscal year 2025. To foster these talent, we will develop an education system tailored to the level of DX talent.

The DX talent we are looking for is someone who can use digital technology to lead digitalization within an organization, has the expertise and the drive to innovate, and is up for a challenge. We divide these DX talent into three levels (digital experts, digital challengers, and digital users), and are actively developing them by defining the roles and requirements for each. In fiscal 2023, we trained approximately 30 employees as experts and challengers.

In fiscal 2024, we will establish a new DX catch-up course for digital users to foster a certain level of digital knowledge and a mindset for utilizing data, and expand the base of digital users. We have also established a training system for digital challengers and digital experts who lead improvements using digital technology, and have started training them.
　

At our company, we are not only developing DX human resources in terms of skills, but are also working in parallel to create a system that encourages them to take on challenges. From the second half of fiscal 2024, we will hold "DX Open" events where employees can learn about the results of DX within the company, and through cross-organizational learning and praising human resources who take on challenges, we will improve organizational capabilities and foster a culture of taking on challenges.

DX human resource requirements by level and training results for the first half of 2024