Interviewees

Kawasaki Robotics

• Koichi Sakai: General Manager, Procurement Department, Production Division, Robot Division, Precision Machinery & Robot Company
• Takushi Ono: Senior Staff, Production Division, Robot Division, Precision Machinery & Robot Company‍
• Kazuki Hayashi: Procurement Section 1, Procurement Department, Production Division, Robot Division, Precision Machinery & Robot Company

‍

Operational dependence on individual employees significantly reduced ‍

‍Kawasaki Robotics, a comprehensive engineering manufacturer, operates in a wide range of businesses, including ships, railway vehicles, motorcycles, industrial plants, precision machinery, and robots. In 1968, Kawasaki Robotics developed and began manufacturing the first domestically produced industrial robot in Japan, establishing itself as a pioneer in Japan's industrial robot sector.

The Robot Division of the Precision Machinery & Robot Company, which is the core of the robot business, has been engaged in the development, design, manufacturing, and sales of various industrial robots for industries such as the automotive and semiconductor sectors. In recent years, the company has also ventured into medical robots for surgical assistance. As the robot market has grown, the sales scale of the Robot Division has expanded annually, with a target to quadruple the current sales by 2030 as part of the Group Vision 2030.

With the expansion of sales and the organization, the Robot Division faced various challenges. One of the major issues was the need to improve productivity per employee in response to business growth. The allocation of personnel could not keep up with the business expansion, resulting in a continuous increase in the workload for each employee. In such a situation, standardizing knowledge and promoting horizontal dissemination were often delayed, leading to increased dependence on individual employees.

The dependence on individuals caused various problems in operations. For instance, in the design department, the lack of utilization of past knowledge led to significant differences in design outcomes among designers. Similarly, in the procurement department, there were disparities in procurement prices and quotations depending on the buyer, resulting in inconsistencies in work quality.

To address these issues, the Robot Division began various initiatives, such as trying to standardize operations by creating manuals. In the procurement department, a system was internally developed using Excel to calculate reasonable costs by inputting information from drawings.

Takushi Ono
"When creating the system, we categorized representative drawings into product groups such as sheet metal parts, machined parts, and purchased parts, and grouped similar items. We then extracted parameters that affect prices, such as shape characteristics, materials, and processing methods, from these drawings. Based on this, we developed a calculation algorithm. The system was created by about seven or eight people. Each person reviewed around 1,000 to 2,000 drawings, so in total, we reviewed approximately 10,000 drawings."

The system, developed over about a year, helped reduce price variations and standardize work quality, although the degree of success varied depending on the type of parts. However, as time went on, the system gradually began to encounter problems.‍

‍
A System That Can "Assetize Drawing Data" Without Much Effort, Ensuring Continuous Use

The costs of raw materials and processing, which affect the prices of parts, change over time. The system required continuous updates to these price-influencing numbers, but manually updating them became a significant burden. Additionally, the system struggled to handle complex machined parts with many input parameters, leading to a gradual narrowing of the system's usage scope. This necessitated the consideration of a new system that could be used continuously with minimal operational burden.

The Robot Division, feeling the limitations of internally developed and manually operated systems, began exploring various external systems. It was during this exploration that they were introduced to CADDi Drawer, a cloud-based drawing data utilization service. CADDi Drawer had already been implemented in the vehicle design department of Kawasaki Railcar Corporation, another group company. Although they were somewhat familiar with the service, the Robot Company had initially hesitated to consider it because they envisioned its use in procurement rather than design, making it difficult to imagine the potential benefits and effects of its use.

Koichi Sakai
"I was attracted to the idea of 'assetizing drawing data' when I heard the explanation. There are often similar parts, but the drawing methods can differ. CADDi DRAWER's similar item search feature can mechanically detect these differences. You can link drawings to data, allowing you to refer to past unit prices while looking at the drawings. It can also extract data using OCR from drawings. We had struggled significantly with verifying similar drawings and extracting information when we were developing internally. I thought CADDi DRAWER would make such tasks much easier.

"CADDi DRAWER's similar item search feature can mechanically detect differences in drawing methods. You can link drawings to data, allowing you to refer to past unit prices while looking at the drawings.”

Robots tend to have many similar products. The ability to handle and view such data with CADDi DRAWER is essential for the future. Also, I felt that with this system, even if the organization expands and new people join, they can naturally carry out their tasks."

After receiving the explanation, the Robot Division conducted a trial using actual drawings they typically use and checked the usability with a project team that included both management and field members. As a result, they confirmed that they could find the desired drawings with intuitive keywords, anyone could view past similar drawings and procurement information with one click during quotations, and data collection for the integration and standardization of similar parts was easy. This allowed them to envision the actual use of the system in their operations, leading to the decision to implement it.

Extensive Support Before and After Implementation. CADDi DRAWER Drives Business Expansion.

The preparation for implementation progressed at an astonishing speed. In the past, it took at least six months to a year to implement a system in the Robot Division, but this time the implementation was achieved in about three months.

Kazuki Hayashi
"The response speed was incredibly fast, allowing us to communicate without stress. When the response is quick, internal communications also proceed swiftly, creating a synergistic effect for both parties. Furthermore, CADDi's Customer Success team worked alongside us to organize the current challenges in our operations and discuss how to proceed with solving them, enabling us to move from contract to implementation at an unprecedented pace."

"The response speed was incredibly fast, allowing us to communicate without stress. When the response is quick, internal communications also proceed swiftly, creating a synergistic effect for both parties.”

Not only during implementation, but CADDi also provides extensive support after implementation.

Takushi Ono
"The Customer Success support structure was very attractive. Simply introducing the tool does not lead to its adoption. It requires a lot of effort to expand it with only internal members. Many cases have ended without fully utilizing the tool. CADDi, however, does not just sell the tool; they provide solid support and help integrate it into our actual operations. The consulting-like cooperation after implementation was a significant advantage. We hope to continue working together towards achieving the business goals set out in our Group Vision 2030."

"CADDi provides solid support and helps integrate the tool into operations… This consulting-like cooperation was a significant advantage for achieving our Group Vision 2030."

Currently, the Robot Division mainly uses CADDi DRAWER in the procurement department, but they are considering expanding its use in the future. The plan is to extend its application to the design department after mastering its use in the production division responsible for procurement. Ultimately, they aim to expand its use throughout the entire company to create synergies.

By leveraging CADDi DRAWER, they plan to improve production efficiency, establish a solid foundation for business operations, and achieve further business expansion.