Nikkiso has used kintone in a factory-led initiative to build a company-wide data platform and integrate information across departments. Order volume increased by approximately 1.5 times, while annual working hours were reduced by approximately 23,000.
At an IT event for manufacturers, Nikkiso reported that it was building a company-wide data platform, led by its factories and using kintone to integrate information from sales, engineering and manufacturing, achieving approximately 1.5 times the order volume and reducing working hours by approximately 23,000 annually.
The company positioned its IT strategy as the capability to sustain the business and its DX strategy as the capability to develop the business, while digitizing operations centered on paper and Excel. It pursued reforms in 6 areas: business infrastructure, design technology, development operations, technical processes, organizational management and the transfer of technical expertise.
The company-wide data platform was built in 3 phases. Phase 1 introduced SFA, CRM and document management, among other systems, and consolidated cross-departmental workflows. Phase 2 advanced integration with core systems, making order information and bills of materials available for use across departments. Phase 3 was planned to apply accumulated data to AI analysis.
IBM's AS/400 ERP system and kintone were connected through the data integration tool DataSpider, centralizing information from sales, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, quality control and service. This established a framework for managing operations across the period before and after an order was placed.
AI use is progressing into the third phase, with applications expanding in areas including the analysis of project management data and activity histories, and the extraction of technical standards. Reducing meeting times and further strengthening support for management decision-making were identified as future challenges.