Message from the Director in Charge of Digital Transformations

Shimadzu DX Promotion Measures

The Shimadzu Group is dedicated in collaborating with customers to solve challenges in society based on a corporate philosophy of "Contributing to Society through Science and Technology" and a management principle of “Realizing Our Wishes for the Well-being of Mankind and the Earth.” The objective of Shimadzu Group’s digital transformation (DX) measures is to leverage data and digital technologies to improve the quality of our activities, thereby achieving growth for employees and the Shimadzu Group. Those objectives are articulated in the Vision for Implementing DX Measures specified in 2023. Shimadzu Group’s DX measures consist of two main components. Business model transformation (BX) measures aim to conceive and offer the best possible solutions for customers. Corporate transformation (CX) measures focus on creating the organizational culture and mindset that enable those BX measures. Currently, Shimadzu has specified and is engaged in four transformation themes (instilling a customer-oriented mindset (BX), establishing standards and improving process efficiency (CX), developing human resources for DX measures (CX), and creating a place for collaboration (CX)).

First Year of Medium-Term Management Plan

The most important of those four transformation themes is establishing standards and improving process efficiency. This involves concurrently implementing three things, which are standardizing and increasing the efficiency of supply chain management and product life cycle management process flows and establishing the corresponding information infrastructures. Therefore, we will ensure the most advanced tools are always available by conforming to world standards for working practices. We will prepare information infrastructures that enable data-driven management. The aim of these improvement measures is to enhance the quality and increase the speed of product planning, improve the quality of products and services, and offer customers better solutions sooner. Such efforts have been progressing roughly according to plan.
In terms of training human resources for DX measures, we initially specified a goal of training 3000 entry-level DX personnel by 2025. However, over 6000 individuals, or twice that goal, were certified in FY 2023 alone. Because we exceeded the goal in the first year, a new goal of training 7000 personnel by FY 2025 has been established.
Meanwhile, in FY 2023 we fell short of our goal of training a total of 625 apprentice-level (intermediate) and journeyman-level (advanced) personnel by FY 2025. On the other hand, about 1,100 people are currently enrolled in those training courses, which is nearly double our target, so we expect to achieve the FY 2025 goal. Currently, the training programs are being offered to Shimadzu Corporation and Japanese Group company employees. Given the approximately 8,000 eligible participants, we are somewhat surprised by the large number of applicants.

Deploying BX Measures Based on Shimadzu Strengths

In contrast, the BX expansion of subscription service businesses is behind schedule. While we have completed building the basic systems, determining the business process flow for each product provided is taking time. However, we believe product development could speed up once we have a sufficient number of products to establish standard business process flow patterns.
Consulting has been considered as a possible new subscription-based business model in the future. We will continue to increase the number of products that enable building long-term relationships by offering our solutions, cultivated over many years, to customers who are struggling with a lack of analytical or measurement expertise and do not know what to do.

Second-Year Measures for the Medium-Term Management Plan

The medium-term management plan has designated the three-year period from FY 2023 as a period for business expansion and organizational change to focus on customers (domain). Previously, customers were offered solutions separately for each product line. However, to transition to a customer-centered (or region-centered) one-stop source for solutions, we need to integrate the variety of business process flows previously used in respective divisions. In FY 2024, the second year of the medium-term management plan, we will intensify efforts to standardize and streamline business processes to a new level. In addition, we will accelerate the training of DX human resources to support those measures, particularly focusing on intermediate or higher-level personnel, and foster a culture where DX personnel engage in DX measures independently.

Generative AI

We will actively utilize generative AI while also carefully considering potential risks. The Shimadzu ChatGPT service started in FY 2023 is, as of the end of March 2024, now used by about 3,000 Group employees throughout the world. Usage will be increased in the future, with more environments where it can also process internal company information, and with Microsoft Copilot introduced on a trial basis from March 2024. By successively increasing the use of generative AI, we aim to boost productivity and achieve business process improvements.

Expect Great DX Measures from Shimadzu

The Shimadzu Group is attracting a collection of people who resonate with Shimadzu’s corporate philosophy and management principle. Coupled with a culture of taking on challenges without fear of failure and a mentality geared towards daily business process improvements, such as the small-group activities that have been ongoing for about 40 years, the Shimadzu Group already has a strong foundation for implementing DX measures. Therefore, I hope improvements and reforms achieved through DX measures will enable Shimadzu to continue offering new value to society.
Expect continuing growth of both employees and the company through implementing DX activities.